I've been trying to work in that reference for a few posts now

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I felt a lump grow in my throat when I saw the smile on Garza’s hologram as I entered my cabin and activated my communications console. It wasn’t the cheerful, uplifting smile of someone who was genuinely happy with things; it was the snake-like smile of a predator carefully eyeing its prey. I just hoped I wasn’t it.

 

“Sir.” I snapped to attention and fired off a salute that was straight out of the soldier’s manual.

 

“At ease, lieutenant.” Garza’s smile suddenly became somewhat lopsided. I was beginning to feel very afraid. “First, I’d like to congratulate you on a job well done. Though it would have been preferable if you had managed to complete your mission without alienating a faction within House Organa and killing Bex Kolos.”

 

I tried really hard to look embarrassed. “Sorry about that, Sir. I hope those setbacks don’t affect us too much going forward.”

 

She narrowed her eyes, a lot like Mom used to, and cleared her throat loudly. “Of course. I can always count on you to look out for the potential political and long-term ramifications of your actions.” I felt a drop of sweat forming where my hair met bare skin on my neck. “Fortunately, further consultation with Charle Organa has secured even closer ties with his house. I’m told he even considers you personally responsible.”

 

“You’d be surprised how often I hear that, Sir.”

 

“I doubt it.” I clamped my mouth shut. “In the meantime, the SIS has secured some very valuable intelligence that will be of interest to you. I won’t share it over this channel; it's too important. Your squad will need to report to my task force, currently operating in the Pa’rath system in the Outer Rim. Once you arrive, I will brief you on the unfolding situation and outline your new mission’s objectives.”

 

I thought about asking her for more information, but killed that thought after getting a better look at her holographic face. Whatever was going on involved something big, and if she wasn’t going to even hint at it to me over a holocall, there wasn’t much point in trying to talk her into revealing anything else. I knew what it probably meant, though. Tavus.

 

“We’ll move out immediately, General. I’m sure the squad will be eager to see more action, especially Forex.” Damned droid was even better at fighting than it was at spouting Republic propaganda, which was saying something. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll gather my squad. Sir.”

 

Garza merely nodded as her image faded away.

 

I found Jorgan and Elara both ready to go on the ship, but Forex was nowhere to be found. Confused, I jogged down the ramp and into the hangar bay, surveying the scene to try to find the wayward war droid. Nothing. Growing somewhat concerned, I picked up the pace and ran through the security checkpoint, back into the main hall of our wing of the spaceport. I finally spotted it next to Valyn Thul, who was seated at a small table in a café.

 

What the hell?

 

They were so caught up in their conversation that they didn’t hear me approach, which was just as well given how they’d have launched themselves at me to get me involved. As I got closer, I heard snippets of what they were saying – talk of galactic politics and the excitement of military life; I was unsure which of them was the more enthusiastic participant in the exchange.

 

“Forex.” I cleared my throat and felt a bit sheepish, even though it was just a droid’s conversation that I was interrupting. “We’re shipping out, new mission in coming. Need you back on the ship so we can head out.”

 

The droid rotated its body toward me. “Of course, Sir! I look forward to bravely defending the Republic and her soldiers on many battlefields to come. I only regret that I have but one chassis to give for my country. Why, there is nothing I would not do to serve the Republic in order to ensure its final and glorious victory over the Empire.”

 

Valyn Thul clapped excitedly, while I felt slightly nauseous. “Uh, that’s great Forex. The Republic appreciates your service as much as I do. Probably more so, actually. You are truly a testament to your, uh, kind.”

 

It looked at me with cold metallic eyes. “Thank you, Sir! I am always eager to prove my worth to the glorious cause of our noble Republic and its proud citizens, one and all. Together, we represent the vanguard for the Republic armed forces, which in turn serve as a shining example for everything that is right in the galaxy as we combat the nefarious minions of the evil Empire. We have made great inroads here on Alderaan, smiting the devious and conniving Wolf Baron as we rescued the noble Duke Organa, and –“

 

“Enough, Forex.” Dealing with a droid was bad enough when it wasn’t reciting material from the propaganda holos verbatim. “I’m sure we all appreciate the finer points of political morality you bring up, but perhaps we can discuss them later. After you get on the ship.” And after I find a restraining bolt that lets me shut you up whenever you get going.

 

“Of course, Sir!” The droid rotated its body to face Valyn Thul. “Miss Thul, it has been an honor serving as your escort. I trust that the Republic-related materials I procured for you will help you learn more about our righteous cause, our drive to bring truth and justice to every Sith-infested corner of the galaxy. In fact –“

 

“Enough!” I must have said it louder than I intended, because both Forex and Valyn jumped in the air. I rubbed my forehead in exasperation. “Just get back to the ship, Forex. We need to ship out as soon as possible, which means no time for speechifying.” I glared at the droid until it took the hint and shuffled off back to our hangar.

 

Which left me with the largest ball of energy this side of the galactic core.

 

“Oh, Lieutenant Martell, I’m quite glad you were able to find time in your busy schedule to visit; I wasn’t sure you would be able to because you must be so busy with your command.” She snuck a breath in, but finished it before I could get a word in edgewise. “Oh, this has been such an adventure. I never dreamed I would be involved in a high-stakes game of diplomatic tug-of-war, a pawn trapped by the schemes and machinations of both the vicious House Organa and her own, duplicitous, House Thul.”

 

I was beginning to understand why Forex and Valyn enjoyed each other’s company so much.

 

“Uh, yeah, something like that. Where are your parents, Valyn?” I squinted as I shifted my body to look around the room, hoping to see either of them nearby. “Shouldn’t you be with them instead of wandering around with Forex?”

 

“Oh, not at all, Lieutenant Martell. I have determined that spending time with people from the Republic and other walks of life would be most beneficial to expanding my understanding of the galaxy. Why, think of the stories that they could tell me! In only a few short hours, I’ve already learned about so many exhilarating experiences that these people have had.”

 

“Uh huh.” I looked around the room again and noticed a sketchy looking Twi’lek glancing in our direction, a wry smile on his face. “Let me guess, you were talking to one of the smugglers over there?”

 

“Nothing like that, Lieutenant!” Valyn sounded vaguely insulted. “I was speaking with one of the independent contractors over at the dining establishment, and he spoke about his adventures outrunning Imperial cruisers in his freighter. Why, one time he was smuggling people from Tatooine to Alderaan, can you imagine that?”

 

I wrinkled my nose, trying to determine how best to respond. I ended up settling on patting the top of her hand gently. “I think you’d be better off staying away from guys like that, Valyn. There are other ways to learn about the galaxy. Saferways, too.” I gave the Twi’lek a bit of a dirty look, prompting him to look away, though he was still grinning mischievously. “In the meantime, you should find your parents and make sure they’re okay. “

 

“Oh.” For once, she was unable to come up with a ridiculously verbose response. “Are you leaving then?”

 

She gave me a sad look that made me feel absurdly guilty. “Uh, yeah.” Her expression fell slightly further. “But you and your family can always count on me if you need help with something. I’m always just a holocall away.” I cautiously looked in her direction again and realized I needed to clarify. “Within reason of course. Not all the time. But if you need to." I grimaced. "You know what I mean.”

 

Damned teenagers are as hard to deal with as Elara is. Maker save me.

 

I was about to say more but instead found my mouth covered by the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. I awkwardly reached around her and hugged her back, trying not to notice how much it felt like when I had said goodbye to my family when I’d left for Corulag…the last time I’d seen any of them.

 

I didn’t want any more family to have to say goodbye to, didn’t want to have anyone else that I’d let down, whether today or at some point in the future. But I was also tired of running away from being the kind of man my parents had raised me to be. Mom hadn’t brought me up to run from those who needed me, and Dad hadn’t passed along lessons on how to shirk what was right. Maybe it was time to remember that, even if it meant taking a leap of faith.

 

“Thank you for all you’ve done.” Valyn murmured into my chest. “You’ve been far lovelier than we could have expected.”

 

I frowned slightly and carefully disengaged myself from her embrace, taking care not to beat too hasty of a retreat. Something – what, I could not say – made me playfully ruffle her hair with my hand as I did so. “Take care of yourself, Valyn. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I thought about that for a moment. “Unless it’s something smart, cause I do some dumb stuff sometimes.”

 

She gave me a puzzled look, then smiled slightly. I took it as a hint to escape while I still could, and turned away so I could jog back with as much of my dignity as I could. Didn’t want to let the bastards at the cantina get the wrong impression and think that I cared about some half-crazed noble girl from Alderaan, after all.

 

The trip to Garza’s staging area went as well as could be expected. Elara somehow managed to have Jorgan tied up with Forex for most of it, and I managed to avoid her by disappearing into my cabin and developing an acute case of deafness when required. I needed the time to recharge, anyway, after nearly screwing up the entire political situation on Alderaan for the Republic. It didn’t help that I had the strong feeling that things were coming to a head, in more ways than one. Garza wouldn’t have ordered the rendezvous unless we were closing in on Tavus. I would have thought that realization would have felt good, but I just felt uneasy.

 

Probably doesn’t help that I’m trying to manage my own personal situation too.

 

Turned out it was a lot harder to avoid someone when you were stuck together on a small ship with little room for maneuver. I decided to try to develop new strategies for dealing with the situation after we took care of Tavus.

 

We dropped out of light speed at our assigned coordinates. The three of us and Forex were greeted to quite the sight out of the cockpit window – she’d managed to scrounge together a quartet of cruisers and several other ships. Definitely Tavus – nothing else would be worth this kind of effort.Garza’s automated signal led us toward the largest of the cruisers; Jorgan piloted us into the ship’s hangar bay, where we left our ship…and our overly enthusiastic war droid.

 

General Garza was waiting for us in the central briefing room, her usual uniform as perfectly pressed as always. She waved away our salutes and went straight to the holodisplay behind her, launching into the briefing I had known would be coming.

 

“Your good work on so many worlds has presented us with an extraordinary opportunity to strike a death blow against Tavus and his service to the Empire. In response to the death of Gearbox, Tavus sent out messages across the galaxy to others that joined him in defecting to the Empire.” Garza paused and gave us a wry smile of triumph. “Unfortunately for him, we were able to intercept those messages with the assistance of our friends in the SIS. Tavus is rattled, and the Empire has begun to lose faith in him because of his failures on so many worlds. Because of this, Tavus has recalled many of his senior commanders to meet on his personal ship, the Justice.” The holographic image of a Harrower dreadnought appeared before us. “With the assistance of several other units, your mission will be to infiltrate the Justice, disable its engines, and then eliminate Tavus as a threat once and for all.”

 

“Eliminate?” I raised an eyebrow. “Is our mission to kill him or capture him?”

 

“Either will be an acceptable outcome.” Garza’s voice had an edge to it, even for her.

 

“Understood, Sir.” That left the glaring question on the table. “If I might ask, how are we going to infiltrate Tavus’ ranks. Somehow, I doubt they’ll be all that pleased to see us.”

 

Garza smiled. “Of course not. But you won’t be Lieutenant Ayrs Martell and Havoc Squad, you’ll be Captain Raul Mendoza, commanding a squad of survivors from the failed operation on Nar Shaddaa. Though Captain Andrik was…regrettably…killed in action, you and your men were able to escape with a prototype Republic war droid.”

 

“Should be good enough to get us on board, at least. Hopefully will keep them off our backs as long as Forex keeps its mouth shut, too.” I stroked the stubble on my chin thoughtfully. “What other squads are involved, Sir?”

 

“Three others. Gallant, Nova and Typhoon.” She nodded in turn at two women and a man across the room from us, presumably the commanders of each of those squads. “Gallant will cover the hangar bay, while Nova and Typhoon will counter any attempts by the defectors to put up an organized resistance. Once you have secured and disabled the engines on the Justice, this task force will jump in and land further reinforcements for the final push. Any questions?”

 

“No, Sir. We’ll go get prepped.”

 

“Excellent, I’ll have the necessary comm protocols forwarded to your ship.” She paused and licked her lips. “We have an opportunity to knock Tavus and his organization out once and for all. I expect nothing less than complete success.”

 

“Yes, Sir!” This time, the entire room spoke as one.

 

We returned to the ship in silence, though that silence was tinged with the nervous anticipation you’d expect from the kind of career-defining mission we had ahead of us. Elara’s brow was furrowed with concentration, and I could only imagine what was going through her mind. Even Jorgan looked a little

 

Truth be told, I didn’t know what to feel. I hadn’t served under Tavus long enough to care about his defection on a professional level, but he’d always been a man I’d admired from afar, a childhood idol for a teenaged me. I was eager to see him and his men brought to justice for their crimes…but there was still some part of me that hadn’t completely accepted that I would be going up against someone that had been a hero of the Republic.

 

No time for that kind of crap now, though. People are counting on you, and there’s a mission to get done. Finish the job, finish Tavus’ organization off, then you can sit on your *** and contemplate the meaning of life all you like.

 

I sighed and made my way over to the room where Forex had decided to create its lair – it needed a new color scheme if we were going to pass him off as ‘captured’ Republic goods. It helped that the job also gave me something to do during the trip out to Tavus’ ship. Better that than hiding in my cabin again, at least.

 

We came out of light speed a few hours later. The Justice was hanging in front of a heavily-cratered moon, without any escorts. The perfect target. Assuming everything was on schedule, the other squads would already have made it onto the ship, and I could only hope they hadn’t been discovered. If they had…

 

Well, if Tavus managed to sniff out the other squads, then at least it’ll be over with quickly.

 

Jorgan responded to the defectors’ hails with the appropriate recognition codes and we all breathed a sigh of relief when they were accepted without issue. Too often, mission planners got caught up in the intricate or flashy aspects of a mission, and they let the more mundane details slip through the cracks. Then again, I should have known Garza wouldn’t be that sloppy. The dreadnought grabbed our ship in a tractor beam to guide us into the hangar, which was as good an excuse as any to abandon the cockpit and make our final preparations. We hadn’t had time for a proper equipment overhaul, but our neutral-colored armor would hopefully be enough – we were meant to be Republic defectors, after all, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if we still had Republic-issue gear.

 

As we disembarked from the ship, we were greeted by a squirrelly-looking captain and six troopers. Judging from their demeanor, everyone else had either made it on board okay or Tavus’ people were the best actors in the galaxy – their only hint of suspicion appeared as Forex clanked its clumsy way down the ramp. The captain stepped forward and put his hand out, while his men lifted their weapons. “Halt. Identify yourselves.”

 

“Captain Raul Mendoza.” I gave my voice a tired, almost haggard, tone. “We were with Andrik on Nar Shaddaa when the Republic hit us hard. We went to ground and managed to recover that droid prototype but…” I shook my head to mimic the sadness the real Raul Mendoza would have felt. “It was rough, real rough.”

 

“I heard the unit the Republic sent after you was their best,” he replied sympathetically. “The stories I heard about their commander from another guy that escaped.”

 

“Damn straight,” I grunted. “Guy was a maniac, like a monster out of one of the stories. He ripped through entire squads practically single-handedly and there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it. Captain Andrik tried to hold him up by sending some of the droids after him, but it was like nothing we did mattered. I wish we’d gotten that guy to join us, he’s the finest damn soldier I’ve ever seen.”

 

The captain’s eyes were bugging out a bit. “Sounds like you’re lucky you got out alive.”

 

“I was. We all were. I don’t know who he is or what turned him into an animal like that, but I don’t ever want to fight him again.” I took a deep breath. “I bet he could probably take out this entire ship on his own. Maker help us if he ever tracks us down again.”

 

It sounded like Jorgan was choking on something, but I chalked that up to another hairball. My counterpart was too busy to notice, as his jaw had dropped and his tongue looked to be in danger of detaching itself from his mouth and falling to the floor.

 

“M-maybe you should get that droid over to engineering and take a break then.”

 

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Worked out nicely, actually, since we needed to get to engineering anyway. “Take care of yourself, captain.”

 

We exchanged salutes, and then the four of us began our trek toward the engineering deck. Security wasn’t very tight, which was surprising, but the traitors had probably been lulled into a false sense of security by their mobile location. We passed by two security checkpoints and at least four patrols that barely paid us any attention, despite the fact we were heading for one of the most sensitive areas of the ship. Even after we entered the engineering area, only a single person – a young-looking Rodian woman – thought to stop us, and even she was dissuaded with the help of my charming smile and winning personality.

 

I left Forex at the bottom of the ramp that led up to the control room – it was far too conspicuous to take up. I wasn’t sure if I could trust Jorgan to handle things if things got hairy, so I left Elara with the droid to keep things under control. If someone gave them trouble, I figured Elara could bury them in paperwork and procedure, anyway.

 

Jorgan took the lead as we entered the control room. There were a handful of pasty-faced techs inside, but they didn’t seem too concerned with what we were doing – not at first, at least. I casually strolled over to the main controls and inserted the data rod with the command override that would let us seize control over the dreadnought’s systems. It was only then that the techs seemed to realize we were up to something, but Jorgan’s assault cannon kept them from trying anything stupid. The system override was surprisingly easy to install – whoever had programmed it had obviously focused their attention on external threats, not those from within.

 

Sorta funny for a ship crewed by a bunch of traitors.

 

I’d just about finished my work when the terrifying wail of the ship-wide alarm went off. Might have been me being sloppy, might just be one of our fellow squads screwing up, but it meant trouble either way. I sped up my work as best I could, but there were only so many shortcuts I could take before I was risking having the entire thing fail. Won’t do us any good to have Tavus jump away and leave us stranded on his ship against a few hundred angry traitors. Stay focused. Focus. Focus.

 

“Sir?” Elara’s voice was slightly raised; I felt my heart leap into my throat just imagining why that might be. I glanced to the side, but Jorgan still had the techs under control. Which meant only one thing. Reinforcements. Maker save me.

 

“Dorne, what’s going on?” I tried and failed to keep my concern out of my voice.

 

“We have company, Sir. Forex and I have established a perimeter of sorts, but we are outnumbered and could use assistance once you have completed overriding the propulsion systems.” Her voice betrayed not a hint of emotion, yet I could still tell she was worried, and that worried me.

 

“Finishing up now. We’re on our way.” I motioned to Jorgan, who pointed the techs toward a utility closet. One of them opened the closet’s door, and then led the others into the room. The Cathar closed the door behind them and activated the locking mechanism. I double tapped the console to upload the final bit of our override, and then the both of us hightailed it out of the room and carefully descended down the ramp. I didn’t like what I saw.

 

“Sergeant – no, Lieutenant.” Her voice was as icy and unfriendly as ever, and the looks on the faces of the squad behind her didn’t help. “You’ve been busy, I see.”

 

“Wraith, it’s good to see you again. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have you pointing a blaster at me.” I kept my tone as airy as possible. “I don’t suppose I can convince you and your men to lay down your weapons and surrender? There’s no need for this to get violent.”

 

She watched Jorgan slip to my left and take up a position behind a large console, though her cold eyes revealed nothing about whether she was at all worried about a potential firefight. “I’m not here to surrender, Lieutenant. You and your Republic are my enemies. That’s all you need to know.”

 

“I suppose it is.”

 

Both groups stood in silence for a moment, staring at each other like something out of a vid. Then, with the flash of one of Forex’s grenades, the room lit up into a pyrotechnic display unlike any I had seen since leaving the academy. Wraith somersaulted out of the line of fire, and most of her squad managed to find some cover, but three of the traitors weren’t moving at all when the smoke began to clear. Good. Give ‘em something to think about.

 

“Forex, loop right then take them from the side. Jorgan – grenades on the left, then I want you to keep the center pinned down. I’ll follow your fire in. Elara, you follow me in.”

 

The droid moved out first, its armored shell reflecting the bolts fired at it into the ground and walls. Its blasters tracked the traitors opposite us and blasted holes into the armor of two of them, lifting them up and out of their cover and sending them flying away. Jorgan’s fire on the other side of the engagement pinned the traitors in from the other side. After a few moments, several tried to make a break for their comrades to their left.

 

Time to move.

 

Jorgan switched to mortar rounds and scatter fire, dropping two more of our opponents, and sending the ret flying in search of cover. I followed Jorgan’s fire in, activating the shields on my armor and lowering my shoulder into the container that was covering Wrath and the remainder of her unit. I heard her gasp in surprise as I forced it backward, driving them back as well. Elara’s pistol fire dropped all three of Wraith’s companions; I ignored them and charged the Mirialan directly, ramming my shoulder square into the spot where her armor met her neck.

 

The impact caused us both to drop our weapons, but she was faster to recover, unsheathing a nasty looking combat vibroblade and nearly taking my right hand off at the wrist. I rolled away from her and lunged for my rifle, but she blocked me off. I still had Mom’s DV-22, but I couldn’t quite reach it with the way my body was contorted. I tried to reposition myself, but her boot caught me across the face as I tried to roll out of my crouch. I found myself flat on the floor, staring up at the conduits and pipes on the ceiling.

 

Damn, that hurt. Packs a punch for someone her size.

 

I heard some screaming from behind me, from unfamiliar voices, thank the Maker. Wraith heard them too, and they seemed to throw her off guard. Even as she moved in with her blade, I swung my legs around and swept them into hers. Wraith crashed to the floor with a surprised yelp, giving me the time I needed to scramble back to my feet.

 

She growled and charged again, but this time I was ready. I caught her wrist in my hand and twisted it as I squeezed as hard as I could. She cried out in pain and dropped the blade before trying to disengage. This time, though, she couldn’t put the weight on her wrist that she needed to perform her acrobatics, and she landed squad on her face.

 

I grimaced slightly as I collected myself and grabbed my rifle. The firefight was over – Jorgan having finished off the last of Wraith’s people – so the room was suddenly and eerily quiet. It was almost as unnerving as being in the middle of a battle.

 

“Surrender, Wraith.” I pointed my rifle at her, trying to remind myself that she’d be more useful as a prisoner than a corpse, no matter how creepily detached I found her. “Your men are dead, and we have you surrounded. Don’t do anything stupid.” Jorgan was circling around her to my left, Forex to my right. I felt the reassuring presence of Elara behind me, though I might have been confusing it with the feeling of a kolto injection. “Hands in the air.”

 

The Mirialan never responded to my request. Instead, she reached into her belt and unclipped a grenade. Before any of us could do anything, she pulled the pin and rushed toward us. Time seemed to slow, giving me plenty of time to see the blank expression on her face. It seemed somehow appropriate for a woman who never seemed to be anything more than a cold enigma. Even her service record had barely hinted at anything more, but suddenly there was no more time to mull that over. Just a loud roar, a wave of heat, and the room went black.

 

I came to a couple of minutes later. My helmet was off, and I could feel the blood on my face and neck, felt like I had a piece of glass in my face or something. Soft hands were gently mopping some of it up. Elara.

 

“El-Sergeant Dorne. Status report?” My words were somewhat garbled but everything seemed to be working okay, other than my head feeling like it used to after one of my nights drinking.

 

“Fine, Sir. You have some facial wounds which will heal with appropriate care, but you are combat-capable.” I caught the flash of something in her eyes as she looked at me, but she flinched instead of meeting my gaze.

 

I shot her a roguish smile. “I’m in good hands with you, Dorne.”

 

Jorgan’s hacking cough cut us off before Elara could respond. Or you could get yourself in trouble, more like. “If we’re good to move out, Tavus is still out there, and we don’t know what kind of resistance to expect.”

 

I suddenly couldn’t quite meet Elara’s eyes, so I gave the Cathar a steely look and nodded as I slid my helmet back on. My face was still sticky with blood but my vision was clear, and so were our objectives. I cut in front of Jorgan and Forex and led the squad back to the door.

 

We’re Havoc. We've got a job to do.

 

There would be plenty of time to embarrass myself later.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Lesaberisa

Author's note

 

 

 

I crouched behind a bulkhead as another squad of Tavus’ people scrambled past us, heading toward the hangar bay. We’d heard the alarms for several minutes now, alerting the entire ship to the fact that Garza’s reinforcements were moving into position. I couldn’t be sure of how the squads already on board were doing, but I suspected that they had proven to be as big an annoyance as we had, judging from the increasingly frantic expressions that Tavus’ people were wearing. Not that it bothered me much; it wasn’t that I wanted them to die, but they’d made their choice to jump ship to the Empire, and they were living with the consequences.

 

**** ‘em.

 

The bridge was too far up the ship’s superstructure to get to without using the lifts, even if that might be a real hassle. Our little cloak and dagger routine might work have worked on a random officer with his guard down, but the entire ship was on full alert now, and Forex alone was reason enough to give anyone with half a brain pause. Not much to be done about it at this point, though. Best we could do was hold onto our butts and pray to the Maker for good luck at whatever security or defenses they had waiting for us.

 

Garza’s briefing had been unpleasantly brief about how we were meant to get from engineering to the bridge, particularly given the heightened security. No doubt, Garza had figured we’d find a way to get it done, like we always did. Damned easy to do when you were safely commanding the op from a desk somewhere, somewhat less so when you were trying to actually complete the mission.

 

I took the lead, hoping that my insignia and commanding presence would at least help deal with any reluctance to let us through. The corridors were largely deserted except for a few stragglers scurrying around like the rats that they were; fortunately for us, they paid little attention to the well-equipped squad of soldiers moving away from where all the fighting was taking place elsewhere on the dreadnought. Maybe it was a sign the Maker was watching over us. More likely, it was just a sign that the troops that had followed Tavus over to the Empire were not all the best and brightest of Republic Special Forces.

 

“Lifts are coming up on our left, sir.” Jorgan’s voice was slightly raised, but his posture made it clear he wasn’t too worked up about the situation. “Scans show some kind of automated defense, but nothing too bad.”

 

“These traitors stand no chance of stopping us, Sir!” I sensed a Forex speech coming, and decided to nip it in the bud.

 

“Quiet, Forex. Keep the channel clear.” The droid stopped for a moment and almost looked chastened by my words. “I’ll handle security – it’s likely they’re wired into the security network on the bridge, so we don’t exactly want to go blasting away at them.”

 

The squad nodded and followed me down the corridor and around the turn to the right. I could see the squad of Tavus’ people ahead; a captain in command and six subordinates scattered haphazardly around him. They had set up some cover, mostly by overturning what looked to be crates of supplies. They weren’t using that cover, though, clearly more caught up in the chaos that was unfolding around them. It was either lazy or stupid of them – possibly both – and it was also something we could capitalize on. I strode up to them casually, as if I had all the time in the world to do whatever it was that had brought me there.

 

“Halt.” The captain had an authoritative voice, which rang out as his squad slowly drifted into something more closely resembling a formation. “Who are you? Where are you taking this…droid?” The man must not have been briefed on Forex, which was so much the better for us.

 

“Prisoner transfer,” I replied smoothly. “From cell block 1138.”

 

Because he’d left his helmet sitting on one of the crates, I immediately noticed the suspicion painted on his face. Trouble. I tried to assuage his concerns with a friendly smile, but the gesture did little good when it was covered up by a helmet.

 

“I wasn’t notified,” he said with a frown. “I’ll have to clear it.”

 

I grimaced. There wasn’t a chance in hell they wouldn’t activate their defensive protocols if he kicked this upstairs,

and we weren’t going to fight our way through those without significant back up. By the time that arrived, Tavus might find a way to escape from the trap we’d laid for him.

 

“No need,” I said, putting my hands out in front of me, as if I was talking to an old friend. “We captured this unit after we took out one of the Republic squads down in engineering. Turns out it’s the same droid that Commander Tavus sent Captain Andrik and us out after on Nar Shaddaa.” I gave Forex a sharp kick in the leg. “Guess it’s a bit of poetic justice, even if it came too late.”

 

“Hmm.” I could already tell that the guy wasn’t buying my story, not completely at least. Mom’s voice had had a similar tone after I told a white lie to try to avoid getting in trouble, and this was no different. Even as he seemed to be giving my words careful consideration, I was already preparing for the worst. I casually glanced back at my squad and nodded almost imperceptibly. Elara and Jorgan nodded in return as I turned back to Tavus’ captain.

 

“Mind letting us through? Would rather not have to lug this thing through a firefight?” Last chance for him and his people, even if he didn’t realize it. It seemed clear his squad didn’t, given the way they were more focused on the hallway behind us than at what we were doing. “Don’t want any of the Republic infiltrators to catch us here, and I want to take my people back into the fight after I’m done with this thing.”

 

“I’m not sure I can do that,” he said after a long moment. “Just following procedure; can’t afford any slip-ups with Republic troops on board.”

 

He sounded disappointed. It was about to get worse.

 

“By the Maker!” I inserted some panic into my voice as I stumbled back from Forex. “The restraining bolt failed! It’s active, it’s active! Run for it!”

 

“Eh?” The squad commander was still turning back toward me as Forex’ blasters put two holes through his chest. His still-twitching body spun back toward his squad, which was only just beginning to react. Forex took out the pair to my left, and Jorgan finished off the rest with a carefully controlled burst of fire from his assault cannon.

 

It made me feel a bit uneasy – the soldiers had been my enemies, but we’d also just been having a normal conversation only moments before, and they'd been Republic troops only months before. I took a breath and surveyed the carnage, wondering if it was the same uneasy feeling these troops must have felt when they defected, if they’d been forced to fire on loyal forces. Seemed pretty ****ed up that things could go sideways so suddenly and so completely.

 

“Sir!”

 

I shook my head as I heard Jorgan’s voice reverberate harshly over the comm. This wasn’t the time for daydreaming or moralizing – maybe these guys had been just led astray by Tavus and his rhetoric. Maybe they’d never believed it at all, but felt obligated to follow a certified war hero over a bunch of politicians back on Coruscant. Or maybe they were a bunch of thugs that had seen defecting to the empire as a way to express the parts of themselves that they’d had to suppress back in the Republic. Mom had told me all about those kinds of soldiers, the ones that had scared her more than combat ever could.

 

Worry about that **** later, idiot. You’ve still got Tavus to worry about, and that’s enough to worry about for the time being.

 

I stepped forward and slammed my fist against the control panel for the lifts, calling for our transportation up to the bridge. If we were lucky, they hadn’t been tipped off to the altercation below, and we’d get a clean ride into the command area. IF not…well, there were contingencies for fighting our way out of a deactivated turbolift, but I wasn’t particularly interested in living them out. Getting Forex up there with us was going to be a bit of a problem, given that the cars weren’t built for unwieldy war droids, but we’d be able to make do on our own if he had to join us in a separate lift.

 

Calm down. Take a breath.

 

My mind was moving fast, too fast. I could always tell when I was risking getting myself into trouble because it always felt like my mind was racing along at lightspeed. There were no more variables to calculate, no scenarios to imagine, just a mission to complete and a job to get done.

 

The lift arrived with a soft beep that was barely audible. The doors slid open to reveal an empty grey chamber with a control panel opposite us against the far wall. It was smaller than I had hoped, forcing us to leave Forex behind to wait for the next. Not idea, especially not with the kind of resistance we might face on the bridge, but there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it. Elara stepped in first, followed by Jorgan. I followed them in, then spun on my heels to face the door. I gave Forex a thumbs up as the doors slid shut on us, which sparked an amused chuckle from Jorgan, and then we were on our way up.

 

Standard sweep procedures unless we hit a snag, sir?” Jorgan’s voice was measured rather than curious; he’d obviously realized the same thing that I had.

 

“Affirmative. We won’t have Forex’ heavy fire and armor at first, so we’ll play it safe until it gets here.” I pondered what Tavus might have done since first receiving word of Republic troops boarding his ship. “My guess is Tavus would have sent whatever he had on the bridge after the boarders, especially once we shut down his hyperdrive. He wants to run, not fight, so we have to assume that they’re working on repairs right now.”

 

“There may still be turrets or other unmanned defenses, Sir,” Elara cautioned. “I suggest a cautious approach.”

 

“Agreed.” I chewed on something else for a moment. “Also, we’re taking prisoners. Including Tavus, if we can.”

 

“You can’t be serious…” I didn’t need to see Jorgan’s face to know it was darkening with anger.

 

“I am.”

 

“Tavus is a traitor; he gave up any right to special treatment.” He was angry, but more under control this time. “If he gives himself up, fine. If not, I don’t see why we should risk our necks for a Sithspit piece of crap like him.”

 

“Commander Tavus might prove to be a useful source of information, Sir.” Elara’s rebuke was only implied, but obvious nonetheless. “And, regardless of our personal feelings, he is owed the same treatment as any other soldier under our rules of engagement and code of conduct. We must set aside any desire to exact vengeance.”

 

She says we must. I smiled slightly, safe in the knowledge that neither would be able to see it.

 

“If he doesn’t make things difficult, we take him in even if he fights back at first. If it comes down to putting a member of the squad in jeopardy and killing Tavus, we take the shot.” They nodded in understanding, if not agreement. “Here we go. Nice and easy, no funny games. Don’t want to give Garza the opportunity to replace me any sooner than she would anyway.”

 

Jorgan coughed loudly as the door opened and we got our first glimpse of the bridge. There were technicians and crew members mulling about their control panels while others supervised by staring at their data pads. Tavus standing with his back toward us on the opposite side of the bridge, facing the viewport like a man seeing outer space for the first time. He didn’t seem to have any guards around him, and I didn’t see any kind of turrets or other weapons emplacements. Either he hadn’t anticipated trouble…or he welcomed it. I didn’t know whether to be concerned or thankful.

 

I fiddled with the settings on my helmet. “In the name of the Galactic Republic, I am placing you all under arrest.” My voice rang out across the bridge. The technicians, most of them pasty-faced and looking like the kind of guys that spent too much time on the HoloNet, shot their arms in the air. Tavus didn’t respond, didn’t even move. “Even you, Tavus. General Garza wants to have a nice little talk with you.”

 

The older man finally responded, turning around to face us. His hands remained clasped behind him, though he could easily draw his pistol if he decided to. I couldn’t quite read his expression – it was like the sky on a cloudy day – shrouded and unclear. He wasn’t happy, though. I seemed to have a habit of depressing people by showing up.

 

“Lieutenant, I am not surprised to see you here. I always believed you were true Havoc material, even if your loyalties were too easily swayed by Republic propaganda.” He glanced over my shoulder, past Elara and Jorgan, to the spot behind me where I could hear Forex clanking its way up. “I see you’ve returned my war droid.”

 

What’s he playing at?

 

“We can talk more later, once you’re in custody. Keep your hands where I can see ‘em.” I raised my rifle to point in his direction and motioned at Jorgan and Forex to keep the rest of the bridge crew covered. “There’s no reason to for this to end badly.”

 

“Isn’t there?” There was a hint of bitterness to his voice now. “You killed them all. Needles, Fuse, Gearbox, and now Wraith. Not to mention the dozens of other good soldiers you murdered in the name of a Republic that deserves nothing but scorn. Do you regret what you’ve done for such a misguided cause? Do you feel any guilt at all? Do you realize what you’ve done?”

 

I took out the trash.

 

Fortunately, I managed to keep my mouth shut instead of saying so.

 

“Fuse turned his back on you and your Empire before he died giving his life to ensure his bomb designs wouldn’t fall into the hands of murderers who saw them as tools to kill civilians with. And the rest?” I was tempted to spit on the floor between us. “Needles was an amoral man experimenting on his own soldiers on Taris so he could perfect a bioweapon. Gearbox was a lunatic who was overly fond of explosives and large machinery. I didn’t know Wraith much apart from the fact that she enjoyed killing people.”

 

The corners of his lips twisted in a rage-filled scowl, but I kept going before he could say anything.

 

“I may have pulled the trigger on some of them, but it was you that got them killed. Your pride, your selfishness and your rank stupidity. You told me on Ord Mantell that the Empire valued its warriors and the Republic did not, yet here you stand on your bridge. Alone, with no friends and no Imperial reinforcements.” I took a breath to settle myself a bit. “You may have been a hero once, but you’re just a karking fool now. The Empire used you and your followers for its own gain, and now that you’ve ****ed up and need help, they’re leaving you hanging to dry. Surely, you can see that?”

 

“How dare you speak to me about making mistakes. How dare you lecture me about my own people.” Tavus’ face reddened to the point where I could almost no longer see his wrinkles. “The Republic abandoned us on Ando Prime. The Republic abandoned everyone with the Treaty of Coruscant. It is nothing more than a sickly corpse-to-be, and is no longer worth serving. You may have bested my squad and the rest of my men, but they are greater heroes than you’ll ever be.”

 

“Fine by me,” I said nonchalantly. “I’m here to be a soldier, not a Maker-blessed hero. I don’t need or want some Holonews reporter telling my life story, and I don’t need legions of teenaged girls writing fanfic about me. I’m here to do a job, and I’m here to protect the people you no longer care about. Maybe you forgot that the first duty of a Republic soldier isn’t to themselves, it’s to the people they serve.”

 

“Sir, perhaps a less confrontational approach would be advisable.” Elara’s soothing voice helped dim the red I saw before me.

 

“Be that as it may, I’m prepared to take you into custody peacefully. You and all of your surviving troops, too. General Garza will want to question them about what they know, and she’ll definitely want to…talk…to you about everything you’ve been involved with, but it’s a helluva lot better than getting the rest of your command killed for some damned fool crusade.”

 

“Don’t’ be ridiculous. Garza would have me shot the moment you were out of sight.”

 

“You give her too little credit.” At least, I was hoping Tavus was. “She’s not stupid, and neither are you. You’ll stand trial for your crimes, of course, but your corpse is a good deal less valuable to the Republic than your information. We aren’t the Empire. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that.”

 

“True…true.” His expression softened, and I stepped forward slowly to take him into custody. It was a mistake. I was stupid. And I was sloppy. “But a trial? No, I won’t go through that. Not for you, not for Garza, not for whatever’s left of the Republic.”

 

Tavus drew a pistol from a holster I hadn’t seen and fired a bolt directly into my chest. The shielding and armor absorbed the energy, but threw me back and to the side, into an abandoned console that felt really bad to be thrown into. His eyes were strangely empty, as if he’d resigned himself to death as long as he got to lash out one last time. He adjusted his pistol again, but never got the chance to fire again. A series of blue circles flew out of Elara’s pistol and slammed into Tavus. His body jerked for a moment, and then went limp, his pistol falling to the floor next to his prone form.

 

“Stun bolt, nice work Elara.” I coughed and swept my hands over my armor, trying to make it look like the entire thing had been part of my plan instead of a damned stupid mistake that could have ended real badly. “Thanks for the save. I, uh, should have seen what he was up to.” I coughed again, and removed my helmet to give myself some more air.

 

“Your belief in Commander Tavus’ good intentions was understandable, if misplaced.” She was unavoidably close now, carefully inspecting me for wounds and my armor for damage. Her voice was softer when she spoke again, in part because her helmet was off, placed on the floor beside us. “Having faith in others can be dangerous, but it is also admirable in many case as well.” She avoided my gaze, which gave me an excuse to avoid looking at her.

 

“I like to think people always have the chance to do right. Some people deserve to have their own faith rewarded.” I flashed a smile on the off chance that she might see it. Naturally, she did not.

 

“Of course, Sir. I have always appreciated that. That you take that stance, I mean. Sir.” Suddenly flustered, she scrambled back to her feet and threw a look back at the lifts. “General Garza is here, Sir. Perhaps this is a conversation best left for another time.”

 

I hadn’t realized we were having a real conversation, but felt strangely pleased that Elara had. I killed the small smile that followed as quickly as I could, realizing Garza would most likely not be in the mood for such frivolities. Indeed, she had a deathly serious expression on her face as she strode toward me, flanked by two pairs of guards and with Jorgan and Forex trailing behind her.

 

“Lieutenant, I see you have the situation…under control.” She peered inquisitively at Tavus. I assumed she was wondering if I’d killed him.

 

“Yes, Sir.” I snapped to attention and saluted. “Sergeant Dorne successfully stunned Tavus when he attempted to use my negotiations with him as an opportunity to kill me. He is ready to be transferred into Republic custody for questioning, though it will be some time before the stun wears off.”

 

The general’s eyes narrowed for a moment before she turned her gaze to Elara. “Well done, Sergeant Dorne. Your quick thinking could help us learn intel that might save thousands of Republic lives.”

 

“I am just happy to do my part, Sir.” Elara couldn’t hide the slight flush and curled ends of her lips, though. Not to me, at least.

 

“Sergeants Dorne and Jorgan were both invaluable assets to the mission,” I added. “So was Forex, I guess. It did a good job of blasting things.”

 

“For the Republic!” I heard the damned machine call out.

 

Garza looked back at the droid with a perplexed expression, then returned her gaze to me. “Well done, Lieutenant Martell. You and your squad have successfully completed one of the most important operations in Republic Special Forces history. You and your squad should be very proud of your efforts on behalf of the Republic.”

 

“We are, Sir.” I wondered how much longer this show was going to go on for – the end of a major op like this usually meant getting some time off, and talking to Garza wasn’t really my idea of recreation. Unconsciously, I glanced over my shoulder at Elara, but caught myself and faced forward again when I saw her looking at me.

 

“I realize you may view this as an opportunity for some much-earned R&R, but I’m afraid there are some administrative matters to attend to, first.” A smile tugged at the edges of Garza’s lips. [i}Kark her, she’s enjoying drawing this out![/i] “I have to attend to finishing this operation first, but meet me in my office on Coruscant in three days’ time for the final debriefing. You may consider yourself on leave during the intervening period.”

 

I hid my smile. “Yes, Sir!”

 

Much to my chagrin our three days of freedom were cut short when Elara had detected that Jorgan had somehow contrived to contract womp rat fever, presumably from our time on Tatooine. The rest of us were fine, but she had insisted we follow proper quarantine procedures, and that meant getting locked up once we landed on Coruscant. I didn’t mind getting poked and prodded by Elara but the bastards from Medical Division didn’t seem to understand the meaning of the word gentle and inflicted horrible food on us at well. Jorgan, as if deciding our lives were a cosmic joke, recovered the day of our debriefing, and was entirely too cheerful about the entire ordeal as we made our way to Garza’s office. I decided to make sure that he understood the full implications of what he had done.

 

“You owe me about ten rounds of drinks now, Jorgan. Karking doctors treated me like I was some kind of medical experiment.” I winced and flexed my arm. “If you hadn’t been so damn eager to tough it out on Tatooine, none of this would have ever happened.”

 

“It’s a miracle you survived,” Jorgan shot back. “I can only imagine how they handled the crying.”

 

Elara remained silent, though I strongly suspected she was guilty of rolling her eyes at least once. Forex merely clanked on.

 

“You ruined my vacation, Aric. There are some crimes that are simply unforgivable.”

 

He snorted, but said nothing. We were getting too close to the senate tower for childish banter, anyway. Damned politicians and the various other bureaucrats and brown-nosers never did appreciate the smaller joys in life, and they were already giving us strange looks. Could be the armor too. That seemed too reasonable a motive for people like them, though, so I discarded it as a possibility. We marched on in silence.

 

Garza was seated at her desk, waiting for us with hands folded in front of her, She rose slowly, almost ponderously, as we entered the room and came to attention.

 

“Greets, Lieutenant. I trust your squad has recovered fully from the outbreak?”

 

“Yes, Sir.” I glared at Jorgan. “We got a bit stir crazy, but everything worked out okay.”

 

“Good.” She frowned slightly. “I would have hated to have another nerf steak incident on our hands.”

 

“No, Sir.” I hoped the heat I felt in my cheeks wasn’t a blush.

 

“First, I would like to revisit what I said on the Justice – Havoc Squad successfully completed one of the most difficult and complex operations in the history of the Republic, and for that you deserve congratulations.” I bowed my head in thanks as she continued. “In recognition for your efforts, the Chiefs of Staff have decided to award you with the Star of Valor. Wear it with pride, Lieutenant.”

 

I wanted to ask about Elara and Jorgan, but I could take a hint. “Thank you, Sir.”

 

Garza’s tongue ran over her lip for a moment, like she was steeling herself for something. “In addition, you are hereby promoted to the rank of captain, with all of the duties and benefits that that rank entails. In recognition of your new rank, you are also granted the ability to name an executive officer for your squad. Your executive officer will serve as your second-in-command and will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Because droids cannot hold rank, your choice will be between Sergeants Dorne and Jorgan.”

 

**** me. ********************.

 

“Uh, yes Sir.” I decided to delay for as long as possible, even if I could have made my decision that moment. Instead, I stepped toward Jorgan. “Sergeant Jorgan, why do you think you are qualified for the position of XO?”

 

“Are you serious?” The Cathar’s face was all scrunched up in a way that smelled of trouble. He sounded about as angry as I’d ever heard him. “I have previous command experience with the Deadeyes. I was an operations officer on Ord Mantell for years. If Commander Tavus and your squad hadn’t betrayed us, I’d still be a lieutenant right now.” He swallowed hard. “Besides, you’ve seen what I can do in the field. I’m clearly qualified.”

 

“Uh, thanks. That’ll be all, Jorgan.” He’d said what I had expected he would, and nothing more. I frowned slightly, then turned to Elara. “What about you, Sergeant Dorne?”

 

As if to prove it was possible, she straightened up even more. “I believe I have demonstrated my qualifications and skills during my time in Havoc Squad. I have several years of experience in the field, including a significant amount of time commanding SAR operations on a world as hostile as Taris. In addition to my experience in the field, I can support the squad with my knowledge of the bureaucratic and procedural requirements of being a Republic military unit.” There was a long, knowing, pause. “I also have extensive knowledge of our enemies’ tactics and can facilitate mission and operational planning by using it.”

 

“Thank you, Sergeant Dorne.”

 

She nodded. “Thank you for hearing me out, Sir.”

 

I swallowed hard. Having an easy time finding the answer to a question didn’t always mean that revealing that solution would be just as simple. Especially when you’ll be living with more than just the decision, you’ll be living with the people you made the decision about. **** Garza for making me do this.

 

“You’ve both made your cases, and I’ve made my decision.” I prayed for divine intervention that did not come. “Sergeant Dorne, I hereby name you my executive officer and promote you to the rank of lieutenant.” Jorgan was giving me the look of death that had previously been reserved for ex-girlfriends and Mom, so I decided to stare at the floor.

 

“Thank you, Sir!” Elara’s face was beaming so brightly she could have passed for a star. “I shall endeavor to prove your decision to be a correct one.”

 

“If there’s nothing else, Sir?” I turned away from the glowing Elara and glowering Jorgan to look at Garza.

 

“Not for the moment, no. I’ve allotted four weeks of R&R for your squad, Captain Martell. You’ve more than earned them.” Even Garza cracked a smile at that one, which was completely terrifying. I tried to purge the image from my mind as we exited the office and returned to the barracks we’d been assigned after escaping quarantine. I tried to plan what I would say to Jorgan, to prepare for the storm I knew was coming, but my mind was blank.

 

Blanker than usual, you mean, idiot.

 

Forex left first, muttering something about a political rally. Elara left minutes later, stating that she wished to visit the medical school located nearby. I did my best to appear distracted by an insect crawling on the wall, but Jorgan was a good enough soldier to know what to do when his target was square in his sights.

 

“Can we talk about something?” He flashed his fangs. “Sir.”

 

“Of course. Drop the formal crap, though.” I steeled myself for what was the come.

 

“How could you promote Dorne over me? I’ve been with the Republic for years and served it faithfully, even after the higher-ups screwed me over because your precious Havoc Squad defected on Ord Mantell. I deserved that promotion to make up for it.”

 

“You didn’t deserve that demotion, you’re right.” I started slowly, carefully. “But you aren’t the most qualified person to be my XO. I- “

 

“Maybe you have a problem recognizing officer material, then.” Jorgan’s face was as red as mine.

 

“Maybe you should shut the **** up.” I should have done a better job of keeping my cool but I really wasn’t in the mood. Not when this was my time off, not from the biggest killjoy in the Republic. “I chose Elara because her strengths are exactly what I need in an executive officer. Both of us aren’t exactly by-the-book, and we both have tempers that a Sith would be jealous of. I need someone with a cool head to offset that. You haven’t shown me that you can do that. You have shown me you’re a damn fine soldier, but there’s a difference between being able to fight and being able to command.”

 

His face darkened further. “I’ve held command positions for longer than you have.”

 

“In other units.” I stepped closer, until there was practically no room between us. “If you can’t accept that you’ll have to actually prove your command abilities to me, and that I won’t simply accept your egotistical sense of self-entitlement, then we are going to have a problem.” I lowered my voice until it was barely more than a guttural growl. “Do we have a problem?”

 

For a moment, I thought he would say we did. Instead, he took a deep breath and then turned on his heel as he stormed out of the room. As the doors slid shut behind him, I slid into a chair. Somehow, the fights with the people you cared about always ended up being so much more difficult than anything you’d see on an actual battlefield. I stayed there, stewing in my own juices, for another twenty minutes.

 

Then, I left to find a bar. Drinking counted as R&R too.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Lesaberisa

Wow, tough choice there at the end and you handled it very well. When playing through that part, I always thought that was a rough situation to be in. No matter what, someone's going to be hurt and by then (for me at least) Jorgan and Dorne were both considered friends by my trooper. You did a great job explaining the reasoning, something that I hope I'll be able to do when Mallay gets to that point in the Lauren girls story. Can't wait for the next part!!

This was pretty much the same reasoning I had for choosing Dorne as my XO, Jorgan and my trooper were too alike in temperament to have him as her second in command, one would get into trouble and the other was just as likely to dig them in even deeper

Interesting...

All part of Dorne's evil plan to........be a really good soldier for the right side. Monster.

I woke up to an aching back and an even more painful hangover, my first in a while. I was almost proud of myself.

Normally I’d have just slept off something as simple as a few rounds at a cantina, but the situation with Jorgan made it feel like a headache-and-a-half and a simple solution wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t taken my decision well, but that didn’t make it feel much better – I had known him long enough that I should have realized Sighing, I pushed myself off the rock hard mattress and carefully navigated the rows of sleeping soldiers toward the fresher.

 

The communal fresher was empty, which was fine by me – I hated competing with others when I just wanted to take a piss or clean up for the day. After relieving myself in one of the toilets, I stepped into one of the stalls and tried to shake off the cobwebs. The water didn’t feel that great when it was so damned cold, but it woke me up fine all the same.

 

Once I’d shaken off the morning grogginess, I deactivated the refresher and hopped out to grab a towel. Normally, I’d have been a bit shy about displaying myself like that in a shared room, but I was trusting in the earliness of the hour to protect me. Fortunately, the Maker had evidently decided public humiliation wasn’t in the cards for me today. At least not yet. The Martell family jewels and I made it safely across the refresher room without attracting attention.

 

Whistling softly to let anyone around me know how at ease I was, I toweled off and opened the locker they’d assigned me for my stay on the planet. I’d never had much time or interest in building a wardrobe even on Ithaca and life in the military had hardly changed my stance on the issue, so I didn’t have too hard of a decision ahead of me. Blue, blue-gold or blue-white. At least it’s not the dress blues. Shrugging, I slipped the blue-gold shirt over my shoulders and stepped into the least wrinkly pair of khakis I had hanging in the locker. I doubted the outfit would have passed muster under any kind of official scrutiny, but I figured nobody would say anything if I wasn’t completely reg-friendly as a tourist. Besides, it wasn’t like I needed to impress anyone with my outfit. Not with Elara locked away by Personnel Division at least. I scowled at that thought

 

I grimaced and slipped out the side door to head toward the central hub of the barracks complex. The place was massive, way more so than a passerby could realize – like everywhere else on Coruscant, they buildings extended too far down to see with the naked eye. Most of the troops bunked in the complex were only temporary stays like Havoc, although I’d heard that people sometimes fought over the long-term bunks. I couldn’t quite understand why people would want to be tied down like that but I wasn’t entirely in a position to judge.

 

There were more important things to worry about, anyway. Like how that bastard Kalor is treating Elara.General Garza had expressed her sympathies, but I’d gotten the distinct impression that it was a battle she couldn’t afford to fight at the moment and I wasn’t going to push things, not yet at least. It didn’t make me feel any better about how she was being treated, though, especially since the bastards were ruining her first time on Coruscant. She should have been out seeing the sights and enjoying life in the Republic she’d given everything up for in order to join. Instead, they had her stashed away like some kind of karking prisoner. I took a breath.

 

Easy there, cowboy.

 

Wasn’t any point in getting mad over things I couldn’t change, and there wasn’t any damn point in getting fixated on anything that was just going to piss me off. Or anyone. I scowled at myself as green eyes flashed in my mind. Then, I slapped my forehead to hopefully knock some more sense into myself. I had **** to do, and I couldn’t afford to distract myself any more.

 

First stop was to check in at the communications center. It wasn’t that I expected any interesting messages, but some stupid part of me always hoped I might be wrong. At this early hour, the place was nearly deserted, with just a few scattered visitors and a gaggle of personnel buzzing around them. I slipped past a group of staffers and settled down in a relatively quiet corner of the room. A few keystrokes later, and I had a surprisingly long list of messages displayed on the screen in front of me.

 

The first three were the usual general messages the military sent out about topics none of us really gave a **** about – minor changes to insignificant policies, announcements about obscure postings and promotions, that kind of thing. After getting out of the academy, I’d quickly learned not to waste my time fully reading the things, but they still annoyed the hell out of me anyway because they took time to skim and made it easier to miss the messages that count.

 

There was another message from Legal Services about what they were calling the Nerf Steak Incident which I also ignored – Garza had secured the records and I had faith that they would stay safely classified. An obvious scam message from the “exiled prince of Nygeria III” made me chuckle slightly, but I tossed it aside too. More interesting was seeing that Dravis had sent me a message – maybe things were looking up. I reclined my seat until I was comfortable and fired the message up.

 

“Ayrs, it’s been far too long.” As a gentle smile creased his lips, I couldn’t help but notice that he looked older than the last time I’d seen him, more run down too. I’d seen that look too many times in the mirror. “I know I’d promised to look into what Fillo MacTyre said on Coruscant about your sister. Sorry it took so damn long but you know how these things are.” Drav shrugged slightly and smiled apologetically. “Turns out, he was telling the truth. Sort of.”

 

My heart was suddenly beating about a million times a minute.

 

“It appears that Veresia was captured that day on Ithaca, and then sold into Imperial slavery by the pirates that had her. We lost her trail for a while after that – intelligence holes, unfortunately, and then we picked it back up. I –“ He didn’t really have to say anything after that, not with the way his face was all scrunched up. “I’m afraid she was sent to Dromund Kaas approximately a year ago. We don’t have any information beyond that, but….” Dravis sighed loudly. “I wish I could say otherwise, but you know what happens to slaves that are sent there.”

 

I tuned him out for a moment; my mind was too busy racing to contemplate the possibilities to concentrate on what he was saying. The news about Veresia being sent to Dromund Kaas was bad, but if she’d been alive as recently as a year ago…well that meant something too. If anyone in our family would find a way to survive that, it was Veresia. And if she’s still out there, that means I can still find her. Save her.

 

“…I think Mori’s worried about you. She said she hasn’t talked to you in a few weeks now. So don’t be a stranger. I’ll see you around.”

 

Dravis’ message concluded with him grinning sheepishly into the camera, so I quickly exited out, returning me to the list of remaining unread holos. I was still feeling a bit giddy, so I even took the time to read through the message from the academy asking for a donation and recorded an apology to Captain Kalor for the somewhat less-than-diplomatic message I’d left for him after his previous call with Elara. It took some doing, but by the time I had finished I was pretty sure I’d be able to mend any fences I’d broken.

 

Which left me with only the least desirable messages to view.

 

My grandmother had never been around enough for me to find out much about what had happened with the Martell family back on Kuat that lead to her moving to Ithaca. Mom had filled in some of the details, mainly about how my grandfather had meant more to her mother than everything Kuat could offer. Mom had clearly felt the same way, which had left me pretty disconnected from all things Kuati. Not that you’d really want to spend time with them anyway. Bastards never lifted a finger for us except to ‘protect’ the *********** family name. Naturally, I was never thrilled on the odd occasion the Kuati Martells decided to bless me with a message and today I had two.

 

Even ignoring the family drama in the past, I wasn’t at all happy to see a message from the high and mighty family patriarch, Demetrius. He had his uses - he’d helped me take out Fillo MacTyre after all – but he was about as bad as someone outside the Hutt Cartel or Empire could be. On the other hand, I couldn’t afford to ignore him if he had something important to say. Especially if it might be about Veresia. I activated his message and bit down on my tongue to avoid any vocal reactions.

 

The old man’s craggy face appeared on the screen. “Ayrs, I hope this message finds you in good spirits. I was informed about your promotion to the rank of captain, and wished to congratulate you on the achievement.” What a *********** joke. Demetrius Martell hadn’t given a damn about my mother’s career in the military, and I’d seen nothing to suggest he felt any different about mine. If anything, he’d always been more than happy to tell me I was screwing up by joining up and staying on instead of ‘coming home’. “However, I require your presence on Kuat. The family requires your presence on Kuat.”

 

I heard my teeth grinding against each other, so I paused the playback to calm down a bit. It was always the same with him – he was always willing to throw around ‘the family name’ as if he cared about the people that wore the name anywhere near as much as he did the name itself. Sometimes it seemed like he even believed his own ********, which was probably most frustrating at all – at least if he’d been honest I might have found it in me to respect him. Instead, he kept playing the same games long after any reasonable person would have tired of them. I felt like smashing the screen in, but realized it wouldn’t be worth the damage to my hand.

 

“I realize that you have your own…opinions…regarding the family here on Kuat, but this is a matter of paramount importance. Given the assistance that I provided when tracking down the Imperial agent that murdered your mother and siblings, I ask only that you treat this request with the seriousness it deserves. Should you find yourself willing to accept your duties, I have arranged for your transport from Coruscant to Kuat at your earliest convenience. I understand that you are currently on leave, but this is of paramount importance. With that in mind, my associates have already secured a waiver for traveling off-planet.”

 

Bastard thinks of everything. For a moment, I wondered who in the military had revealed that I was on leave in the first place, but I realized I probably didn’t want to know. There were enough headaches in my life without worrying about how far Demetrius Martell had infiltrated the Republic’s military hierarchy.

 

The old man was so pleased with himself that he was almost smirking now. “I look forward to your arrival.”

 

Mercifully, the message ended there – I probably couldn’t have handled more than another minute of his crap. I sighed softly and ran my hands through my hair before resting my face in my palms. I wished this was all just a bad dream, but Demetrius Martell was a nightmare I simply couldn’t wake up from.

 

I glanced at the message list and was surprised to see Antigonus Martell’s name. As I started the message, I was displeased to see that he had his uncle’s weasel face. I forced down the bile and decided to give the man a chance, especially when his message started with an almost-genuine grin.

 

“Ayrs, it’s been far too long. I know Uncle Demetrius isn’t the easiest to work with, but he is being honest and genuine this time. Even if it might be hard to believe at times. Or every time.” He smiled ruefully. “All that aside, he wants you to be a part of the family here. I realize that it’s hardly fair to expect you to use your leave to come to Kuat, but I think it would be a real step toward something better. I hope you consider it. We all want you to be more of a part of our lives here…and we want you to feel the same way.”

 

The image winked out, leaving me with just my thoughts. Apart from Aunt Thalia, my Kuati family had never seemed too concerned with me after the funeral arrangements for my mother had been taken care of, except when they’d wanted something out of me. Usually, what they wanted was for me to abandon everything I had to be some other person that. I’d never had time for that kind of ********; I wasn’t ashamed to be who I was. If they were ashamed by me, I didn’t have time for them either.

 

I stared at Demetrius’ HoloNet code for a couple of minutes. It was a bit weird how secretive they were being about the entire thing, but I figured it was just their way of feeling important and all-knowing even when talking with their own family. Still, even if it was important, I wasn’t all that sure I wanted to know about whatever was going on. As much as people loved spouting off about how ‘family is family’, maybe things were better that way, especially if what they wanted was to get me out of the uniform.

 

Maybe it’s time to try to be the bigger man, though.

 

Aside from the drama, I’d hoped I might get to spend time with the squad outside of our armor and the dingy spaceports and bases we operated out of. I wanted to get on the same page with Jorgan, to make it clear I still valued the hell out of having him on the squad even if he wasn’t what I thought an executive officer could be. Hell, if I could have gotten him promoted back to lieutenant without the XO position, I’d have jumped at the chance to do it. Judging from the way he’d ignored my message, it didn’t seem a détente was likely, though.

 

Then there was Elara. I sighed, more loudly than I intended based on the looks I got. Even after serving with her for a few months, I still felt the same butterflies in my stomach that I’d had when I first met her..,felt like a damn kid really. Things felt more normal when she was around…they felt better, like they had before...everything had happened. I felt like I could talk to her about the things I’d avoided with Doctor Avant and couldn’t discuss with other people. I wasn’t sure what, if anything, there was between us but that didn’t really matter. Maker knew I’d wasted enough time hiding myself away.

 

At the same time, I didn’t want to screw things up, either. Didn’t want to make her life any more difficult than it already was, didn’t want to get her in trouble with that bastard Kalor, and definitely didn’t want to ruin the squad or our friendship with unnecessary drama. Especially when she needed me as a friend and not an idiot with his head up his ***. **** me, what a mess. It seemed getting away for a few days might well be my best option.

 

I punched in Demetrius’ code. It’d feel a helluva lot better to be pissed off at him than myself, and I really didn’t want to be thinking about Elara at the moment, not with the way that seemed to throw me off balance. Wouldn’t do anyone any good to let myself get distracted; it’d be a sure-fire way to get myself canned. Maybe Jorgan’d like that. Finally get that promotion of his.

 

Demetrius’ unpleasant face suddenly popped into view on my screen, killing the smile that had been threatening to break out on my face. He looked a little older and more worn out than the last time we’d talked, but I knew better than to hope that he might have one foot in the grave. If death ever came for Demetrius, I was pretty sure he’d end up as the winner. His smile was surprising, though.

 

“Ayrs, I am pleased to see you received my message. I trust all is well?”

 

I snorted softly, knowing not to trust anything coming from his mouth that wasn’t condescension. “I did, and it is. I actually do have some spare time while we’re on leave, so I figured I could head on over to Kuat for whatever’s going on. Would’ve been nice to know what was going on, but I’ll let it slide.”

 

“How generous of you.” This time it was his turn to snort. “There are several matters that require your presence, none of which I care to speak about over the Holonet. You will find my transport at the coordinates I attached to my previous message. Do you intend on leaving immediately?”

 

“Sure, why not?” Wasn’t like I had much else to do, other than shoot off a message to the squad and General Garza to let them know what was going on, though the previous message had made it sound like Garza probably already knew. “Hope you’ve got me booked first class.”

 

I laughed. He didn’t.

 

“Of course. I look forward to your arrival.” The screen went blank, and the ordeal was over.

 

Working quickly, I recorded a message explaining my plans to the rest of the squad and hustled back over to the barracks to pack what little I had, except for my combat gear – the one good thing about having a protocol droid attached to the squad was that it could handle mundane tasks like moving things from place to place and my taxes.

 

Once that was all taken care of, there wasn’t much else to do than drag myself down to the hangar where the ship would be waiting for me. The ship Demetrius had arranged was about what I had expected – small and disposable enough to not represent any great investment but still luxurious enough to demonstrate the greatness of the Martell family or whatever. A pink-hued human – or a Zeltron, maybe – in a latex uniform that was tight and revealing in all the right places and gave me a good view of all of them.

 

Any hope that she was a one-off miscalculation was exploded when I saw the rest of the crew lined up in the ship’s main corridor. They seemed to have been staffed out of a modeling agency or something, but not a reputable one. Not that I didn’t appreciate having attractive women around, but I didn’t like cheap stunts like this. Especially not with people Demetrius had bought, something he’d never understand. They were already beginning to circle around me like predators after prey, so I beat a hasty retreat to my cabin and locked the door behind me, dropping my bag behind me to add another obstacle.

 

The room had a fresher, HoloNet access and a stocked kitchen, so I figured it would work well as my prison cell for the next few days. I’d survived worse, even if you didn’t count having to deal with Jorgan’s foul moods for days on end. After a quick inspection to ensure there weren’t any secret entrances for Demetrius’ harem to invade through, I plopped down in front of the desk and began browsing the Holonet for news.

 

In the end, there wasn’t a whole lot, aside from some interesting news from Alderaan. Apparently, some Jedi had managed to push forward the peace talks and was being recognized as something called a Barsen’thor. Strange name, since sounded like one of those stupid words made up by the old sci-fi holovids. Other stuff was pretty standard-issue ‘news’ that was only news to people who had their head up their ***. Growing tension between the Republic and Empire, reports that the Hutt Cartel was moving to expand its borders within its region of the galaxy, crap like that. There was an odd report about a Sith-run cult on Nar Shaddaa that apparently was devoted to charity, but it sounded like some kind of tabloid nonsense.

 

I sighed and glanced at the chronometer – I’d managed to waste all of ten minutes, leaving only a million left to burn until we got to Kuat. This is going to be a long-*** trip. I turned back to the console and logged into my account to find a message from Jorgan waiting for me, which led me to hope that he’d come around on the whole executive officer decision. Playing the message, which consisted of nothing more than an extended farting noise, quickly destroyed that foolish notion.

 

With nothing to gain from dealing with Jorgan at the moment, I decided to send Elara a message to see how things were going. Some part of me felt a twinge of nervousness since she hadn’t replied to my previous one, but I figured Kalor probably had something to do with it. More like I hope it did. As I punched her code in, though, I was interrupted by an alert that I had an incoming transmission; as I switched channels, I hoped like hell that it wasn’t Demetrius.

 

“Oh, uh, hello Sir.” Elara’s cheeks flushed slightly. “I-I was just going to leave a message. I did not realize you would be picking up.”

 

“I did not realize I would be either.” I shot her a wolfish grin, trying to cover up my embarrassment. “And call me Ayrs when we’re off-duty, please. I like it better that way. Because it’s not too formal, I mean.” I felt my own cheeks flushing. “Because it’s less awkward that way, of course.” Shut up shut up shut up.

 

She smiled slightly and the reddening in her cheeks subsided somewhat. “Of course, si-Ayrs. I wished to thank you for your message – spending my leave with Personnel Division has been more problematic than I anticipated and I appreciated having something else to think about. Not that they allow me much time to myself.”

 

“Sorry to hear that, Elara. I guess I’m not surprised but that doesn’t make it any better” I frowned and tried not to think too much about what she’d thought about my pretty bland message. “Is it Kalor giving you a hard time again? If he’s the one behind it, I’d like to see what I can do to help, maybe bring Garza in too if we need the big guns.”

 

“He is the one spending most of the time ‘debriefing’ me on my activities, yes, but you need not worry about the situation – I am sure it will be resolved without too much additional effort.” Elara was speaking a bit slower than usual, more deliberately. “I do not wish to cause any unnecessary trouble.”

 

“Helping you isn’t ‘unnecessary’, Elara.” I frowned. “I still wish there was something more Garza or I could do to help, though. Can’t we challenge him under some regulation or something? I can’t imagine this level of interference with an active-duty unit is accepted?”

 

She smiled. “Captain Kalor is an annoyance, but he is acting within the bounds of regulations, given his position. In any case, such treatment is a small price to pay for a clean conscience.” She brushed a stray hair from in front of her eyes. “With luck, Captain Kalor’s concerns will be assuaged by the time you return to Coruscant and we can rectify the present situation.” Elara flushed again and broke eye contact. “If the squad requirements my presence, that is.”

 

I swallowed hard to keep myself from saying anything stupid off the cuff. “That-that would be great.” I found myself scrambling for a response. “Uh… you’ve never been to Coruscant, have you? If you haven’t, then you’ve probably never seen a lot of the stuff there.” I cringed visibly as I finally managed to shut myself up. I was relieved that she did not seem to have the same reaction. If anything, she just looked a little more flustered, something my inner idiot thought was kind of cute. “Uh, maybe I could show you around. Or something.” Shut up shut up shut up shut up.

 

“Yes, it is my first time on Coruscant. I imagine it would be quite nice to play the tourist.” She looked away from the camera for a second before looking back at me. “I would…greatly appreciate and enjoy…your company should you wish to join me.” Her eyes twinkled for a moment. “Perhaps we can convince Personnel Division to release Aleksei as well.”

 

My stomach did a barrel roll. Careful. Careful. Don’t **** things up. “Sounds like it’d be fun. I’m, uh, not sure about your brother tagging along. Last time I heard from him –“ I cut myself off before I could get myself into trouble. The last time I’d heard from Aleksei Dorne was when he had threatened to kill me if I hurt Elara in any way. “Uh, he mentioned he hates museums.” She glared at me, mostly playfully – I hoped – for a moment. I decided to risk a joke. “Maybe we can bring Forex with us to tell us about how each place represents the inexorable Republic march to victory over the dastardly Empire.”

 

Elara laughed lightly; it was real nice to hear and made me feel less likely to explode from the tension, at least until she shot me a warm smile. “Unfortunately, I'm due for a meeting. I...I look forward to your return, sir-Ayrs.”

 

“Me too,” was all I could think to say before the connection closed, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

 

Back on Corulag, they’d sent me to counseling to deal with the ‘issues’ they figured I was facing after Ithaca, but I hadn’t needed some doctor to know that I had already begun withdrawing from the relationships I had with the people around me. It was too damned hard to deal with the fallout when things went bad, too damned painful to pick up the pieces, and too damn much to face the consequences of opening myself up. It’d been a miracle that Ris and I had lasted as long as we had, since I’d always felt so much safer without the complications. I wasn’t sure I wanted to feel safe anymore.

 

I leaned over to the cooler and pulled out a bottle of beer, twisting the cap off carefully. I hadn’t been entirely honest with myself before – I have feelings for Elara, but it was more than just that. I couldn’t really explain it; maybe it was just knowing she’d been dealing with her own vulnerabilities having left her entire life behind or something, but she almost made it feel okay to open myself up and feel a bit vulnerable again. Whenever I thought about spending time with her after getting back to Coruscant, I felt light-headed. ****, now you’re really asking for trouble.

 

I spent the rest of the trip watching holovids and the ever-rising tab for the food and drinks I was taking from the kitchen. I also took full advantage of the HoloNet access, though I couldn’t help but be disappointed that I only received a couple of additional messages, even if one was Elara providing a list of places she wanted to visit. Whatever I’d gotten out of that was one quickly forgotten by the disturbing message from Forex that consisted of the droid ‘singing’ various patriotic songs it had written. I’d felt a little nauseous after that one.

 

The ‘crew’ came by a few times to try to their luck again, but once they’d gotten the hint that I wasn’t interested they left me alone quickly enough. Fortunately, whoever was piloting the ship ended up being worth their paycheck – they got us there a day ahead of schedule, sparing me any further embarrassment and saving the family a decent amount of credits. Normally, I’d have gone up to the cockpit to offer my thanks, but I decided discretion was the better part of valor, and ducked into an auxiliary corridor to make my escape instead.

 

The heat was unbearable and nearly overwhelmed me the moment I stepped down the ramp – I guessed it must have been the height of summer or something. Demetrius Martell was waiting for me at the bottom of the ramp, standing in front of a pair of his luxury speeders. A couple of lackeys were behind him, probably to ensure he had someone’s head up his *** at all times. Demetrius shot me a suspicious look as I clambered down the ramp; I ignored it, hoping to frustrate him. It didn’t seem to faze him much, but it made me feel a little better, which was good enough for me. I gave him a derisive wink as I pulled up in front of him.

 

“Uncle, so glad you could find time in your busy schedule to see me.” I jerked a finger back at the ship. “I could have done without your cheap setup, though. What the hell were you thinking?”

 

“As irreverent as ever, I see.” He sounded even older and more worn out than he had over the HoloNet. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “That being said, I am glad to see you found the time in your busy schedule to attend to this business.”

 

I snorted with amusement – I couldn’t deny he’d gotten one over on me.

 

“What’s going on exactly? Neither you nor Antigonus were kind enough to let me in on what was so important. I had other stuff I could have been doing.” I tried real hard not to think about that.

 

“All in good time. For now, please allow my associates to direct you to your quarters.” Then, without bothering to wait for me to respond, he rotated his repulsor-chair and maneuvered it into place in one of his speeders. One of the black-suited men behind him popped into the driver’s seat and they left without saying another word.

 

I glanced suspiciously at the second man, who was standing as still as a statue while at attention. Garza’d be impressed by this guy, I think. I didn’t feel like standing around to melt, so I motioned at him to let him know I was ready to go. We both hopped into the vehicle – a nicely upgraded Melkor – and followed the other speeder toward the architectural symbol of overcompensation that represented the Martell family ego and greed in one easy-to-enjoy structural masterpiece. Overly elaborate columns lining the road, ivory towers reaching toward the sky, and everything else your average plutocrat needed to rub their wealth in the faces of the less fortunate.

 

The driver turned away from Demetrius’ speeder after we passed through the inner security gate and dropped me off in front of the guest quarters they’d apparently arranged for me. My five credit tip earned me a scowl rather than gratitude, but he probably didn’t realize that having the Martell name didn’t mean I had a Martell’s bank account. I made a mental note to ask Garza about increasing our pay.

 

Demetrius might have been a huge ******e, but a single glance around the suite made it clear that he didn’t skimp on treating his guests; new appliances, top-quality everything. I dropped my bag on the floor and hopped onto the bed, which was luxurious and – more importantly - big enough for a Hutt. Felt like it, too. I decided to take a nap, to make sure I had enough energy to deal with the family later on.

 

I was dreaming pleasant dreams of Ithaca as I drifted off.

 

The room smelled of perfume and was pitch black when I woke up, which seemed a bit weird since I hadn’t turned off the lights and definitely didn’t bother with scents. I wasn’t sure why one of the old man’s servants would have done that but -.

 

It suddenly occurred to me that my shirt was missing too. Maybe I’m drunk. I hope I’m drunk. Unable to see, I reached out blindly with my right hand and discovered I was not alone in the bed, which I definitely remembered as being the case when I fell asleep. Tentatively, mostly because I was afraid I might get myself further in trouble, I reached out until I touched the person’s hair. Long and thin plus the perfume. I wonder if Demetrius sent one of the transport crew in. It took all of my self-control not to scream or roll into the fetal position.

 

I finally broke when I felt her hand across my chest and heard her murmur something out of an adult holovid; I sprang out of bed as quick as a Kowakian monkey-lizard and backed away carefully. The woman, whoever she was, clapped her hands twice. For some reason, the lights came on right after, letting me see her for the first time. About my age and a nice body. With her brown hair parted like it was, she almost looked like Rissa….

 

I frowned.

 

“Who are you? What are you doing in my room?” I tried to keep my voice even, since she was probably only here because of the old man. No point in scaring the poor woman.

 

“I am telbun,” she replied, as if that answered everything.

 

“What the hell’s a telbun?” I had the distinct impression I wasn’t going to like the answer.

 

She looked confused for a moment before her face lit up with a sudden realization. “I am sorry for the confusion, my lord, but I had forgotten that you have not lived on Kuat.”

 

“Uh, that’s fine.” The sweat was starting to escape onto my neck. “So what’s a telbun?”

 

“I am here to help preserve the Martell name,” she said matter-of-factly, as if telling me the day’s weather. “By bearing your child.”

 

“Oh,” was all I could manage before I hit the floor.

When I came to, I was thankful to find myself without the unexpected company from before. Carefully, I opened my eyes and snuck a peek around the room. A peek that stopped the moment I spotted Demetrius’ decrepit body crammed into a chair across the room from me.

 

“I see you’ve recovered,” he stated flatly. “I apologize for the inconvenience.”

 

“You plant a woman in my bed, hoping I would impregnate her, and you call it an inconvenience? What the hell is wrong with you?” I sat up, scowling at the bastard. “I came all the way out to Kuat because you and your damned nephew claimed there was important family business and you pull this crap on me?” I could have stopped there, but damned if my blood wasn’t up at that point. “Give me one *********** reason why I shouldn’t go back to Coruscant right now.”

 

He stared at me for a long moment, as if trying to read my intentions. Some part of me hoped that he was going to screw up all over again and assume I wasn’t actually that angry. Unfortunately, Demetrius had one of his rare attacks of insight instead.

 

“I do apologize for the appearance of the telbun. I admit that I began the necessary negotiations with her family for her services without consulting you, but they were merely meant to be preliminary. Apparently, the girl was more enthused about the idea than any of us had anticipated.” The old man cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. I tried to ignore the spittle. “I had intended to broach the subject with you during this visit, but she obviously pre-empted me.”

 

“Ah, you didn’t intend for me to impregnate some strange Kuati woman during my visit, you just wanted me to approve of said impregnation occurring at some point in the future. Do you even hear yourself talk?” I clutched at my forehead with my hand, wishing this was the kind of nightmare you wake up from instead of the kind that you wake up to. “Look, I really don’t want to waste any more of my time on this ****; I’ve got enough going on in my life where these stupid Kuati customs just aren’t worth thinking about. Tell me what this family business is, or I’m catching the first transport back to Coruscant.”

 

Considering how badly I wanted to do exactly that, it was disappointing when he had an actual response.

 

“The Martell family has always been an important part of Kuati society, even when individual members have not felt that connection.” I chose to ignore the provocation. “That status affords us many things, but also requires its own maintenance to ensure that influence is maintained.”

 

“Uh huh.” I wasn’t sure where he was going with his rambling but I was increasingly sure I wouldn’t care by the time he’d finished.

 

“It also requires us to consider our place in the galaxy as a whole. We are more than simply another rich family blindly following the ebb and flow of galactic events – our family has always been made up of the people that drive those events in the first place. Our family is made up of visionaries that lead others toward the future that we all desire.” To me, it seemed like the family was made up of megalomaniac blowhards, but I let his comment slide. “I’ve come to realize that the galaxy needs real change in order to move forward. The current paradigm simply does not work.”

 

Something about the way he said it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “What paradigm is that?”

 

“The Republic is the bastion of responsible and moral government in the galaxy, even in the face of Imperial provocations and Hutt depravity. It is our sole hope for a better future, without the dangers that our generations and those before them have faced.” He paused to give me a careful look. “We must all do our part to protect the Republic and its legacy.”

 

I started to make a rude gesture, but managed to restrain myself.

 

“Last I checked, I’m doing my part just fine – I’m out on the front lines protecting the Republic and its people and giving the bad guys a fight when they try to poke their noses where they don’t belong. There’s plenty of people out there just like me, too, busting their *** and pouring their sweat and tears into the Republic. What are you doing sitting here on Kuat that makes you so much more visionary?” I put extra emphasis on the last word, making it an insult.

 

“Yes, you are certainly contributing to the greater cause as best you can.” His eyes skewered me, and he made his own snide remark to hit back at me. “Of course, you are rather…limited…in your potential given that you have refused to consider being anything more than a grunt at the beck and call of irresponsible politicians and others with ulterior motives.”

 

There wasn’t much point in responding to crap like that. Instead, I got off the bed and began moving toward where my bag was. I still had a couple of things lying around the room that I needed to grab before I left.

 

“Wait. That was unnecessary on my part.” The old man was terrible at everything else; it was hardly surprising he was equally bad with apologies. “The point I was trying to make is that I want the family to be more proactive in supporting the Republic and furthering its goals. At the moment, we are too passive. We assume that offering money to the government and idly watching it be wasted is all of the involvement that is required of us. That has never been true, and it is time that we admitted it and changed the way in which we operate.”

 

I grunted as I tossed a loose shirt into my bag.

 

“I have another guest that can speak to the importance of our cause, and outline the steps I want to take to ensure the survival of the Republic and its ideals.”

 

Fancy words, but I wasn’t sure how much he meant them. I motioned for him to continue talking while I packed the rest of my stuff. Demetrius Martell was not a man who would normally suffer such insolence in silence, but he did with me – probably because he knew he was about to lose any chance he had of convincing me, and he never liked feeling like he lost at anything, in any way.

 

“I realize that this family is not as united as it might be…that the fighting over faith, politics, marriage…that all of that fighting as greatly damaged the fabric of this family.”

 

“Seems to me that your constant efforts to force this family into being some kind of fawning cult of the almighty credit has done a lot of damage, as well. Seems to me that we wouldn’t have had part of the family move into the Middle Rim if people like you weren’t so damned insistent on prioritizing themselves over the family and the Republic.” I could tell I was right on the edge of saying something stupid, so I took a couple of deep breaths to let the emotion pass before I continued. “If all you’ve got for me are these platitudes, I’m really not sure why you brought me here. You’re singing the same notes, only I’ve gotten quite tired of the melody.”

 

He didn’t answer me at first; instead, he punched something into the command console on his hoverchair. I heard the beep of someone acknowledging whatever message Demetrius had sent. Only then did the old man speak.

 

“You are committed to the Republic, in your own way. You are aware of my feelings regarding your membership in the Republic military, just as your mother and grandmother and so many other Martells knew of our feelings when they made similar choices.” He bit down on his lip, like he was about to say something painful to admit. “It recently occurred to me that while I do not necessarily agree with the manner in which you have chosen to serve, you are still serving the same cause that I am. We are both dedicated to the Republic and its people, and we are both fighting the same fight – just on different battlefields and with different weapons.”

 

“Uh huh.” I eyed him suspiciously.

 

“If you’ll come with me, I believe I have someone that can better explain the argument that I am making better than I ever could, simply because he is not me.” He put his hand out to shush me before I could say anything. “Ayrs, I realize that we don’t have the best of relationships; there is no point in pretending otherwise. I would like to have this conversation in a reasonable and rational manner, so I have chosen to delegate my responsibility to someone I believe we both respect.”

 

I gave him a side-eye glance, trying to figure out what his game was and, more importantly, who his mysterious guest was. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t think of anyone that both of us would respect. He hated everything that Mom and Grandma and I stood for, and the feeling was mutual between us and the business leaders and corrupt politicians that Demetrius enjoyed socializing with.Well, at least this should be interesting.

 

We left the guest quarters and made our way across the courtyard to what looked like one of Demetrius’ office buildings. There were a few guards on duty, some of whom looked like they were overcompensating for something with their weapons. I kept my mouth shut about that, and saved my stupid behavior for the secretary who took my bag – she didn’t seem to find my wink as charming as I’d anticipated. I shrugged my shoulders in her general direction and followed Demetrius’ chair into the main meeting room.

 

There were two men waiting for us there, both seated on the opposite end of a wooden table. They had both apparently been waiting for some time, based on the bored expressions on their faces, but they barely reacted to my arrival. The one to my left was older, with an absurd moustache and a head of hair that desperately called for a swift shaving. His companion was younger by a few decades and had dirty blond hair and piercing eyes that creeped the hell out of me whenever he looked in my direction; something about him was off, something was not quite right.

 

It was the older of the pair that spoke first. “Greetings, Captain Martell – I am Garm Setrokal. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, after the way your uncle described you and your service to the Republic.” He motioned his companion forward. “This is my associate, Hunter. He serves the Republic’s cause from the shadows…I believe you may even have contact with his own associates.”

 

Hunter merely nodded and offered a sly smile. I supposed being an SIS spook might explain his behavior.

 

“Go ahead and sit down, don’t need this to be all formal.” I didn’t bother smiling, since they would have known I was full of **** the moment they saw it. “The old man tells me you have some grand case to convince me that I should work with you and your associates. I’ll be blunt, I don’t believe him about this any more than I believe him about anything else. Don’t expect much.” I reclined in my seat and rested my feet on the table, just to piss the old man off a little more.

 

Setrokal rose to his feet to give me his sales pitch – I mostly hoped the thing wasn’t too rehearsed.

 

“Captain, you are a perfect example of someone who has dedicated their life to serving the Republic and its people. We are looking for sentient beings just like you in order to ensure the best future for those people and their descendants.” I stifled a yawn, but his reaction suggested my effort wasn’t appreciated. “But even you must sometimes feel like the burden placed on your shoulders is too great, no?

 

I shook my head. “Mostly I try to focus on my, err, squad. My squad and my missions are my concern. Overarching political questions aren’t my concern.”

 

“Of course, of course.” His eyes flitted to my right, at Demetrius sitting in his hoverchair, glaring in my direction. “What I meant is that there are many within the Republic who are concerned about how the government operates at times. We need only look at the last war, which we lost in large part because the upper levels of the Republic hierarchy were unable to prosecute the war effectively. Even now, the government has its hands tied by the bureaucracy and other influences upon it.”

 

“Sometimes things get a bit rough, and I can’t deny the bureaucrats get in the way of things as much as they help sometimes.” I frowned and leaned forward. “Where are you going with this? It’s a lot of talk without anything substantive to say.”

 

Setrokal and Hunter exchanged a strange look. Then, each gave Demetrius a meaningful look. He was the one that responded first.

 

“Ayrs, we have put together a group of the finest the Republic has to offer. We are the industrial and financial leaders, influential politicians and soldiers, people from all walks of life from across the entire Republic. We know that the Republic must change in order to face the coming challenge from the Empire.” There was an oddly predatory gleam in his eye as he continued. “We know that another war is coming, Ayrs. It may be in five years, it might be in five decades. Either way, the Republic – as it is currently constituted – is not prepared for such a conflict. If things are not changed – rapidly – we teeter on the brink of disaster.”

 

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard talk like that, and it wasn’t going to be the last, either. It was still strange to hear Demetrius, of all people, falling in line with a bunch of HoloNet conspiracy theorists, the same people who believed the Republic had known about the impending attack on Coruscant and let it happen for political gain.

 

The older guest continued the sales pitch. “We realize that, as you said, your concern is primarily with your squad and its missions. We would never ask you to abandon your duties to take part in any political activities. We would only be looking for you to support our initiatives to better the Republic through the struggles that will inevitably follow our corrective actions.”

 

I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise, but I kept my voice as flat as I could. “That almost sounds like you’d be going after the Supreme Chancellor. If I’m not mistaken, that would make you all conspirators in a coup against the lawfully elected.” I looked at them through narrowed eyes, hoping my voice wouldn’t give away how nervous I was about what they might be planning. “Of course, I might just be misunderstanding what you were saying, because I’m sure no upstanding citizen of the Republic would every try to suborn treason from an officer in the Republic military.”

 

“O-of course not.” I gave him a nasty smile as he stumbled over his words. “We are merely trying to work within the system for the betterment of the Republic. We cannot allow ourselves to be handicapped by those that simply care about their own interests and agenda.”

 

“That sounds familiar,” I interjected. “Do go on, though, I’m sure you’re getting to the good part about who these mysterious antagonists are.”

 

The other men all looked at each other again, and I didn’t need to be a Jedi to sense their uncertainty. For a high-level conspiracy of some sort, they seemed remarkably incompetent. I’d have found the whole thing funny, if I hadn’t wasted almost my entire leave to be here.

 

“The primary issue is the obvious one,” Setrokal said with a fanatic’s conviction. “The Jedi –“

 

“No. You’re done.” My voice was as cold as my body was hot.

 

“The Jedi are manipulative parasites –“

 

“My father was a Jedi.” I heard his jaw click shut with a satisfying snap. “And I believe I’m through here.” I popped out of the chair and practically hurled it into the wall beside me before turning on the man that had claimed to be my family. “I’ve had enough of this ******** and I’ve sure as hell had enough of you. I came here because you claimed there was some great family emergency that required my presence, and every step of the way you’ve claimed to only want the best for me. It’s clear that you haven’t changed, and that you still don’t understand me. Most importantly, you still don’t understand why my grandmother and mother were never happier than when they were away from you.”

Demetrius’ face turned purple. “How dare you speak to me like that, after all I’ve done for –“

 

“Enough with your lies about what you’ve done for the family. You’re just a bitter old man scrambling for something, anything, to call a legacy because you’ve got nothing else. I’m not family to you, I’m a pet project…a guinea pig to be prodded about until you get the result you want.” I jabbed an accusative finger in his direction. “Out of the kindness of my heart, I’m going to let this little talk with your friends slide, so you won’t see any investigations into potential treason or anything. Consider it one last service to the family because I never want to hear from you again. Ever.” Frustrated with his blank expression, I bared my teeth. “Do you get me, you sad little man?”

 

I didn’t let him finish, mostly because I’d come to realize I didn’t need to. It was one thing to hear people out to give them a chance to have their say. It was another to allow someone like Demetrius to hijack my life. As I left the room, I gave him a nice view of my extended middle finger, which prompted some sputtering from the old man.

 

Before I passed through the threshold, I turned back for one last rejoinder. I couldn’t think of anything clever, so I went with an old favorite. “If you ever wonder if there’s anything you can do to get back on my good side, the answer is pretty simple. Go **** yourself.”

 

If the secretary’s face was any indication, the shouting from behind me didn’t mix well with the scowl on my face and the muttered curses under my breath. On the other hand, her discomfort meant she returned my bag to me in record time, which allowed me to beat a hasty retreat back to the nearest speeder pad. It wasn’t that I thought Demetrius or his cohorts would try anything; it was more that I was afraid I would be the one doing something stupid. Better to get myself out of a bad situation, and get back to where I belonged.

 

The driver was a perceptive one; he got me back to the spaceport much faster than he’d gotten me to the estate on my trip in, and he kept his mouth shut while doing so. Things got a bit more annoying once we arrived, though, since I didn’t have the fancy family transport to fly me back and military transportation while on leave ran about as well as you’d expect any government institution to. Luckily, I had enough credits on hand to book a commercial flight back to Coruscant. It meant limited HoloNet access and a cramped compartment shared with a Nautolan family with a trio of noisy kids, but also that I didn’t have to rely on the old man’s disingenuous support any more. That’s an exchange I’m more than happy to make.

 

I managed to get ahold of one of the HoloNet terminals about halfway through the trip, which also gave me a good excuse to avoid the annoying children in my compartment, who kept asking for stories about Jorgan’s hairballs and Elara’s reg-oo-lay-shuns. I kept my sanity only thanks to the months of living with Jorgan, which had prepared me in the art of dealing with out of control children.

 

Unlike the terminal I’d used during the trip to Kuat, the model in front of me looked more like something out of a scrapyard than a modern piece of equipment. Not that it mattered much – as long as the piece of junk worked, I couldn’t really complain. A couple good whacks on the side got it going, and I logged into my personal account to check my messages. Not for the first time, I wished someone would invent some kind of mobile device to make the entire process easier.

 

I sifted through the first batch of messages, which were mainly made up of requests for a donation from the academy and an even less-exciting announcement from the military about plans for stricter ration distribution. I looked forward to sharing that news with Jorgan. I tried my best to ignore the additional messages about the increased reporting requirements and the memo on the Senate’s decision to form an oversight committee to look into the Republic’s involvement on Taris.

 

There was another message from Jorgan, slightly conciliatory for once. I replied briefly, to let him know I’d be back on Coruscant. More frightening was the extended monologue Forex had sent me, outlining his proposal for forming an all-droid Special Forces unit to combat the Empire on inhospitable planets. The idea itself wasn’t terrible, but the notion that Forex would be supervising it was just about the scariest damn thing I’d ever heard of. I decided to hold off on replying until I was drunk.

 

One message, in particular caught my eye – Valyn Thul had sent me something a couple of days back. The last I’d heard about the Thuls was that Duke Organa was working with the Republic to find them somewhere safe to stay while Markus stood trial. Hopefully everything’s okay.

 

“Um, hello Lieutenant.” She looked alright, as far as I could tell. A little unkempt, but it wasn’t like it was fair for me to criticize someone along those lines. “I just wanted to tell you how grateful Mum and I are about what you did for Father. I know that Mum isn’t always the best at saying that sort of thing, what with growing up as a member of an exiled noble family from Alderaan.” She took a half-breath before launching into the rest of it. “Anyway, we’re all very thankful – the entire thing was so exciting and dramatic and far more of an adventure than I’d ever dreamed of. Why, I’ve watched many holovids and not a single one has come close to what we experienced during our flight from House Thul.”

 

I felt a vein in my forehead starting to pulse, and the start of a headache.

 

“I was wondering if you might have somewhere for me to contact that droid, Forex. We had a most lovely time exploring the grounds of House Organa and I believe it would be most wonderful to stay in touch.” I heard the sound of someone yelling at Valyn from behind her, probably her mom. “Also, if you could thank Sergeant Dorne for the helpful material she sent on adapting to life in the Republic, I would greatly appreciate it. She was most gracious about the entire thing and even my mother was quite effusive in her praise.” There was more yelling, louder this time. Definitely Mom. “Um, apparently I’ve exceeded my allotted time on the HoloNet, so I will have to talk to you later –“

 

The feed cut out, leaving me with an expression best described as a half-grimace and half-smile. It’d been an ordeal, but least my head wasn’t hurting any more. It might after I handle this next bit though.

 

I keyed in Elara’s account, text-only format so I wouldn’t embarrass myself. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to say, but I figured I’d be better off without the stammering.

 

Elara – Hope all’s well back on Coruscant, now that your time with our friends in Personnel Division is over. Things didn’t quite work out on Kuat like I’d hoped, so I’ll be back sooner than I mentioned in my last message. If you’re still interested, I thought I might show you around Coruscant a bit. Thought it might be fun. Or something. Anyway I’ll be back at the Onasi barracks in eighteen hours.

 

I closed the connection before I could dig myself into any deeper of a hole. Either she’d be there or she wouldn’t, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it now. What if she’s only there because she’s bunked there though? I pushed that thought aside as I slid off the bench to return to my cabin, but only after I’d slapped myself in the face a couple of times, good and hard. I needed to get ahold of myself before I did anything stupid.

 

She’d been part of the squad – and my life – for months now, and I still didn’t have a damn clue about what exactly I felt about her and what I should do about it. Back on Taris, it’d been easy – she was a pretty face that ended up being an invaluable asset to our mission. Once she’d joined Havoc…things had become more complicated. I couldn’t really deny my feelings for her, but I really didn’t want to **** up her life or mine or the squad, and I was pretty damn sure that that’s exactly what I would do if I told her that she meant something to me. I wanted to think that she might feel the same way about me – that I wasn’t making too much of the brighter smiles she sent my way - but I’d been wrong so many times before.

 

Maker save me.

 

I decided to wander over to the ship’s bar instead of worrying about Elara, my stupidity or the damned kids in my cabin. It turned out I had made a good choice – after a few beers, I felt much better about everything, and I even managed to sleep through my noisy cabin mates for the last few hours of the trip to Coruscant.

 

One benefit of being in the military is it got you past civilian customs agents a lot faster than anything but a huge bankroll did. Course it helps when you’re a charming sort like me. I slapped myself again for that, drawing strange looks from the other people heading for the elevator. I tried to reassure them with a friendly grin, but I only managed a strange leer, which only made things worse.

 

I decided to avoid social interaction for the remainder of the trip.

 

Garza had a hovercar waiting at the spaceport for me, which was a nice surprise, since Coruscanti public transit was a nightmare. The trip to the Onasi barracks was mercifully short, and I even managed to get myself checked in about an hour before I expected to. Once I’d dropped my gear off, I tentatively made my way out of the quarters and found a credit machine to check the balance of my accounts. Just in case I had any expenses to cover, of course.

 

It didn’t take long to notice that my dear family back on Kuat had reacted about as well as could be expected to our meeting – the family account I’d had access to was gone, without any sort of message, leaving me with just my personal account. I really wish the Republic paid better right now. I’d never really used the funds Demetrius had given me, and it wasn’t like I had ever really given a damn about most of them, but it still hurt for some reason. Maybe because them giving you credits was the only way they ever showed they gave a damn about you I pondered that for a moment, then shrugged the thought off. Wasn’t any point in getting worked up about them, especially not after the crap they’d been spewing. I almost didn’t notice the gentle hand on my shoulder.

 

“Sir – Ayrs?”

 

I whirled around to find Elara looking intently in my direction. I tried not to notice how nice she looked. “Hey, Elara, glad to see you made it.” I flinched. “Not that I thought you wouldn’t come, I’m just glad you did. Like I knew you would.” My throat was tightening. “How are things with you?”

 

She smiled, almost mischievously. “Much better, now that Personnel Division has completed the latest round of interviews. Captain Kalor’s insistence on recovering details we had already discussed was occasionally aggravating, but I am free to enjoy some time to myself.”

 

“Good, good to hear,” I replied uselessly. “I thought we might grab some dinner at this restaurant my friend recommended. It’s a few levels down, but he said the atmosphere was to die for.” I frowned, wondering how literal Dravis had been.

 

Elara hesitated for a moment. “I – I think that sounds delightful. Should I queue up the necessary paperwork to charge it to the squad’s expense account?”

 

As delightful as charging the dinner to Garza sounded, I decided I didn’t want to see my career go down in flames over a meal. “Nah, it’s my treat.” I admired how casually I said it; Elara simply smiled slightly.

 

We grabbed one of the speeders from the barracks hangar. I drove, of course, while Elara did her best to distract me by looking in my general direction and asking detailed, personal, questions about the quality of my trip back from Kuat and whether I’d seen the latest reports from Alderaan over the HoloNet. It was a relief, then, when I pulled up in front of the Hawk Intergalactic Bar and Grill with the speeder still in one piece.

 

They sat us in a small booth near the center of the room. The place was pretty busy, mostly filled with civilians enjoying an evening outing after a hard day at work. It was the kind of place Ariel and I had gone to all the time back on Ithaca, only things had always been easier back then. Probably because you didn’t have so much on your shoulders back then. The waiter, a sketchy looking Devaronian, took our orders quicker than I expected, which left me staring awkwardly across the table at Elara.

 

“So, uh, how’s your brother doing? Settling in okay?” I ran my hand through what little hair I had.

 

“Quite,” she replied quickly. Her smile grew noticeably. “Aleksei is still undergoing the routine procedures for defectors, of course, but he is making considerable progress. His overseer at Personnel Division suggested he could even be cleared for military duty once he passes the necessary security checks.”

 

“That’s great news, Elara.” I grinned broadly at her. “Though I’m not sure what your father will think about having two of his children serving in the Republic.”

 

Her expression was suddenly downcast. “Yes, I suppose there is that.”

 

Stupid stupid stupid.

 

“Uh, right.” I glanced around the room, desperately trying to change the subject. “So, how do you like being a member of Havoc Squad?”

 

Elara narrowed her eyes as she determined her response. “It is the greatest honor of my career…and my life. There are no words that can properly describe what it means to be allowed to serve in such an elite unit despite having been born in the Empire. Regardless of any difficulties that Captain Kalor is responsible for, serving in Havoc is more than enough to compensate.”

 

I nodded. “There’s definitely something to be said about traveling the galaxy fixing people’s problems and making wrongs right.”

 

“Firsthand experience is always the best,” she agreed. She paused, took a deep breath, and then continued. “And

you, Sir – Ayrs?”

 

The answer was easy enough. “It’s everything I ever thought it would be and more. I’ve…” I stared down at my hands as they rest on the table. “I’ve been waiting to find something that would give me the sense of purpose I’ve been looking for. Havoc lets me focus all my energies – good and bad – into something constructive, into something that makes the galaxy a little better, even if nobody knows.”

 

“I understand what you mean.” She hesitated again as a glass crashed to the floor behind her. “When I joined the Imperial military, I saw it as the same kind of opportunity. It made things that much worse when I came to realize the truth about the way the Imperial system worked.”

 

“That’s why it’s our job to make sure the same sh-stuff doesn’t happen here in the Republic.” That earned me a smile and a nod of appreciation. “There’s no point in winning the war if the Republic we’re fighting for turns into the Empire we’re fighting against. I’m not sure General Garza agrees, though.”

 

Elara gave a slight shrug; I guessed she didn’t want to delve into criticism of a commanding officer, even we were off-duty.

 

“Do you have any plans for the rest of our R&R?” I tried to frame my next words carefully. “I mean I’d take you here every night if you wanted but I’m guessing there are other places you’d like to go.” So much for speaking carefully.

 

“Indeed. I have outlined several medical research facilities that would be useful to visit, including one merely minutes from the barracks that is currently responsible for cutting-edge research into battlefield trauma.” I must have made a face at the last bit. “I suppose there are also more recreational plans, as well. The Senate Plaza, for example –“

 

Her sentence was interrupted by the sudden arrival of two rough-looking humanoids next to our table. The leader of the pair – a human with muscles that were almost as big as mine and breath that could kill a bantha – took point. I noticed that he was clever enough to stand in just the right spot to keep both Elara and me from easily leaving the booth.

 

“Wha’ th’ hell is she doin’ here?” He jabbed an accusative finger at Elara. “Wha’ you doin’ bringin’ her kind in here? We good Pub folk here.”

 

“So are we.” I put the biggest ****-eating grin on my face that I could manage. “In fact, we’re both Republic soldiers –“

 

“I ain’t here fo yo bantha poodoo! She ain’t no Pub soldier, she an Imperial *****.” He jabbed another finger at Elara. “We los’ plenty o’good folks when her kind attacked Cor’sant. She got this comin’ to her.” He looked over at his partner, who was nodding along with his words.

 

I felt a flash of heat run from my neck down my spine. ****er might be a Republic citizen, but right now he was just pissing me off. I slammed my fists onto the table. “I don’t have time for this– “

 

“Captain Martell is quite correct. We do not have time for this.” Elara’s green eyes flashed with something more dangerous than anything I’d seen from her before. “Your outburst alone will require an official Incident Report, which itself requires at least thirteen official pieces of documentation in order to satisfy the requirements of the Civilian Interaction Act.”

 

“Wha-.”

 

“Furthermore,” she continued, without taking a breath, “Your threat to use violence against my person requires an entirely different process in order to avoid an inter-service disciplinary hearing. Worse still, Captain Martell issued a threat in response to yours, which escalates the entire situation from a mere Class D verbal interaction, per the Code of Conduct, to a Class A abusive interaction. You would not believe the kind of work that will require.”

 

He scratched his head. “Hu-huh?”

 

“Your only hope for avoiding the entirety of the bureaucratic process is to leave immediately. Otherwise, there is the additional possibility that the restaurant owner and management company might well file a complaint against you with the Coruscanti constabulary, and possibly a corresponding one with the Republic military. Should either of those complaints be forwarded to a suitably high-ranking official, they will then be upgraded to official incidents.” Elara fixed her eyes on the intruder. “Are you aware of what that would entail?”

 

“N-no.” His face was as pale as anything I’d ever seen.

 

“It means you’ll be faced with a subpoena to appear before one of the District Courts. And do you know what that would entail?”

 

“I – I leave now.” He spun on his feet and beat a hasty retreat with his friend close on his heels.

 

Elara shifted her gaze back toward me; her eyes were twinkling now.

 

“Impressive work, Elara.” I winked at her as our food arrived. “Very impressive.”

 

It was true; I was pretty damned impressed. Also, pretty turned on.

 

I decided to keep that bit to myself.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Lesaberisa

It was another week until Garza contacted us to let us know that we were heading back into action. I wasn’t too bothered by it – too much time would make us rusty and sloppy in the field, and the last thing the Republic needed was Havoc Squad screwing up some critical mission because Jorgan missed a shot or Elara mistimed a kolto blast.

 

Or because the squad’s commander was too damned distracted to notice something he should.

 

Jorgan still hadn’t responded to my request to hash things out over some drinks at a cantina, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when the squad reconnected at Garza’s office. He was a good soldier, but it almost seemed like he was too consumed by proving he was a good soldier to everyone. I wondered if he even realized that he didn’t need to spend every damn moment of his life trying to impress people when his actions alone could do the job for him. I decided to ask him at some point in the future, preferably when he had neither alcohol nor weaponry in hand.

 

I found him and Elara outside Garza’s office in the Senate tower. They were awkwardly congregated around the door, with enough distance between them and hostile enough body language that they might have passed for a couple that had just fought. It was somewhat disheartening, since I’d hoped they’d be on better terms. Of course, maybe they would have been if I’d made a different decision about the XO position. Your fault again, idiot. Either way, it was another thing to add to my to-do list, which was getting pretty long at this point. I sighed softly, then made my way over to them.

 

“Howdy, folks. Still waiting on the droid, I see?”

 

They both snapped to attention and saluted me with the kind of precision that would have had a drill sergeant crying tears of joy.

 

“Yes, Sir!” Elara’s voice was crisp and precise. I was pretty happy that she didn’t seem too put off by our night out. Or maybe she was, and I just couldn’t tell, I wasn’t sure. “Forex should be here momentarily, though.”

 

“Oh good,” I said with an air of faux cheeriness. “Maker knows what we’ll do without the Republic’s most well-armed piece of scrap metal.”

 

Elara simply wrinkled her nose at my comment, but Jorgan let out a stifled laugh. I counted it as a small victory that he reacted positively to anything I said. Maybe things were looking up. I realized how wrong I was only moments later when I heard the familiar clank of my least favorite member of the squad became audible.

 

“Sir, I have arrived!” Forex’ “eyes” were gleaming as it approached us. “I am ready to return to duty in order to serve our glorious Republic in action against the degenerate soldiers of the Empire. Why, my very gears grind at the thought of the innocents across the galaxy currently oppressed by Imperial tyranny. I only –“

 

“That’s enough, Forex.” I sighed again, louder this time, and motioned for them to follow me into the general’s office.

 

Garza was standing in front of her control panel, arms crossed across her chest and an impassive look on her face. She didn’t look angry, per se, but I could tell there was something serious going on.

 

“Captain Martell, I’m glad you arrived so promptly.” She sounded like she was being genuine, so I decided to assume she was. “I realize you might have hoped for a longer period for R&R, but a serious situation has developed that requires your immediate attention.” Garza turned and punched a button on the console, activating a map of the galaxy. A single planet was highlighted, one I was not at all happy to see re-enter my life. “An SIS agent infiltrated the Special Projects Division within the Empire. Approximately two weeks ago, he sent a message referring to a new Imperial secret weapon that would dramatically alter the balance of power within the galaxy, codename Gauntlet.”

 

“What does the weapon do, Sir?” Not that it mattered, really. Any kind of superweapon in the hands of the Imperials was bad news for just about everyone, Imperial citizens included.

 

She shook her head. “Unfortunately not. The agent was forced deeper into cover because of a security sweep by Imperial Intelligence. We’ve been unable to determine whether our agent was targeted specifically, or if he simply was the victim of bad luck. Either way, the SIS received an extraction request from him last week and has requested our assistance in extricating him from the Empire.”

 

I pointed at the holo display behind her. “I take it he’s on Tatooine.”

 

“Indeed. The SIS was able to track his transponder signal to that world, but is still working on determining his specific location.” Garza began pacing to her left before retreating to her original position. “I’ve decided to send Havoc Squad because I believe your involvement in locating and then destroying the Gauntlet superweapon is inevitable. You will journey to Tatooine and rendezvous with Agent Jonas Balkar. I believe you’re acquainted with him.” Her voice sharpened. “From the time you disobeyed orders on Nar Shaddaa.”

 

“Uh. Yes, Sir.” My cheeks felt really warm. “I assume we have operational command and discretion once we’re on site?”

 

“Affirmative. Balkar and his people will follow your orders. The SIS does not have many resources in the area, but he has assured me that they will be at your disposal.”

 

I chewed on that for a second. “What if things get hairy? If the Empire is aware of our agent’s presence, it might also be aware of what he knows. If the Gauntlet superweapon is that big of a deal, they might drop the hammer on us when we try to pull him out.”

 

“It’s a risk we’ll have to take.” Garza didn’t sound any more pleased about the possibility than I was, but it sounded like someone further up the food chain had decided it didn’t matter. Someone who didn’t have their *** on the line, that is. “I have assurances from a Senior Agent Tallin that the SIS has no reason to think that is the case, though.”

 

Drav, always knew I could count on him.

 

“Senior Agent Tallin’s word is more than good enough for me, Sir.” I saluted; the rest of the squad followed suit. “If that’s it, we’ll grab our gear and ship out immediately. Last thing we want is for our guy to be gone before we get there.”

 

“Indeed.” She saluted back. “Good luck, Captain.”

 

Nobody said much of anything as we returned to the barracks to pick up our gear and then headed to the military spaceport to head back to the Thunderclap. Perhaps it was for the best – I didn’t want any arguments to start while we were in public.

 

When we arrived at the hangar, I was pleased to see the techs Garza had sent to retrofit the ship’s weaponry and engines had done a damn good job. It was still just about the ugliest hunk of junk in the Republic fleet, but I didn’t really give a crap about how it looked as long as it could fight. I still wanted a dedicated pilot for the squad, but this would do well enough for now. I wonder what happened with that kid who flew us to Coruscant.

 

Everyone settled in easily enough while I took the first piloting shift. I didn’t mind it too much – it was good to keep my piloting skills up to par, after all – but damned if it wasn’t lonely sitting up there by myself for a few hours with nothing but some trashy holovids to keep me company. A part of me wished Elara would stop by, even if was just to tell me that she thought our night out was inappropriate. The other, smarter, part of me figured it was better for both of us to avoid that kind of compromising, awkward, situation.

 

In the end, it was Jorgan who stopped by the cockpit, and the visit went about as well as could be hoped.

 

“Sir, I was hoping to speak with you for a moment.” There was a decided edge to his voice I didn’t like, but that wasn’t really out of the ordinary with him, so I brushed it off. “It’s about the executive officer position.”

I grimaced but nodded. “Sure thing, Jorgan. What’s on your mind?”

 

“What’s on my mind is that I think you’ve made a huge mistake. I thought you were a better judge of talent than you apparently are.” I felt the sudden urge to say something stupid, but kept quiet as he continued. “I’ve got more years of service than Dorne, and I was already about to get command status before Tavus and his traitors blew it for me.”

 

“Yes, you did have more years in the Republic military. Yes, you were already a lieutenant on track to become a captain.” I sighed heavily, tired of covering the same ground over and over. “I already explained my choice on Coruscant, and I don’t see the point in rehashing that discussion.” His eyes narrowed, so I decided to approach things more directly. “Look, I get why you’re frustrated, but let me put it all out there. You’ve definitely got qualifications for command, but I need someone who’s willing to call out the ****** orders we get just as much as they’re able to follow the good and easy ones. Maker save me, Jorgan, you’d have had me shoot those people on Coruscant that Garza thought might be cyborgs. Hell, you wanted the Republic to be messing with Needles’ research.”

 

“No I didn’t,” he replied sharply. “We were ordered to recover the research so it could be studied. That doesn’t mean I liked the orders.”

 

I cocked an eyebrow. “And what kind of XO would you be if you didn’t raise your objections? What use is disapproving of questionable orders if you’re just going to follow them anyway?” Damned if this wasn’t the most frustrating kind of conversation to have. “I guess I don’t understand why you’re so *********** obsessed with playing the good soldier when you don’t like what you’re being asked to do but you’re so damned eager to get on my *** over minor things.”

 

“That’s easy for you to say. Your place in the Republic isn’t going to be questioned if the higher-ups think you’ve stepped even a little bit out of line.”

 

“The hell does that even mean, Jorgan?” I wasn’t in the mood for word games.

 

He bared his teeth in frustration, like he was debating whether to let something out that was eating at him and had been for some time. I knew that feeling all too well – everyone always loved talking about getting things off your chest would make you feel better, but that was a damned easy thing to say when you weren’t the one holding back something painful.

 

Jorgan responded through gritted teeth. “My people, the Cathar I mean, have had to fight for every scrap we’ve gotten. The Republic left us to die when the Mandalorians came for us, and it’s only now they’ve started trying to repay us. And how? By sending settlers to Taris, of all places.” He jabbed a finger in my direction. “Can you tell me that you have to work anywhere near as hard as I do to prove my worth, to show that I belong?”

 

“No, I can’t say that I do. And you should know that as long as you’re doing your part for the squad, there’s nowhere I’d rather you be than watching my back here in Havoc.” He looked somewhat mollified by that. “I can’t really say much about the Cathar, but I do know that the Republic values everyone that belongs to it, even if it doesn’t always show it. You know how politicians are.” I made an obscene gesture. “****ers need people like us to make sure the right things get done. That’s why I need you focused and dealing with the mission at hand and not with how many stripes you have on your dress uniform.”

 

He didn’t say anything at first. Instead, he stared down at his hands; I guessed he was trying to figure out what to say.

 

“I still think I was more qualified.” Then, a little gruffer. “It isn’t just about the stripes, though.”

 

“I know. Trust me, commanding the squad means a lot more to me knowing how proud my mom would have been if…if she’d been around to see it than it does just because I get the rank and increased pay.” I swallowed hard. It wasn’t like I wanted to get emotional in front of Aric Jorgan. “But we’re here to be a team that kicks the Empire’s *** and saves the Republic’s. If the XO position is going to be a problem, I’ll sign a transfer order if that’s what you want. It isn’t what I want though – I want you alongside Elara and even that damned droid. The squad’s better with you in it, which means the Republic is better off with you in it too.”

 

Jorgan looked at me contemplatively, then grunted. “Well, when you put it that way, how could I say no?” He smiled. Barely.

 

“Good, I need a good henchman to bring to the cantinas when it’s time to go drinking. Don’t think Elara’s up for that kind of duty.” I grinned stupidly at the Cathar, who stared back at me.

 

“You don’t need to get drunk to make a fool out of yourself in front of her,” Jorgan noted more coldly than I liked. “Besides, from what I heard, you needed her around the other night.”

 

“I could have handled that,” I retorted defensively. “But since you’re in a good mood and want to be a team player, I’m going to let you handle the rest of the flight out to Tatooine.”

 

Jorgan scowled as he tried and failed to come up with a witty response. He was still scowling and grumbling as I slipped out of the cockpit to head to my cabin. Elara was still sleeping in the crew cabin and Forex was busy downloading the latest propaganda holos, so I was spared any further obstacles to getting some decent sleep before we hit Tatooine. I made a mental note to check in again with Garza about getting a pilot when I had the chance; it was damned stupid to risk fatigue on the part of a squad member because we had to shuttle ourselves around.

 

I couldn’t say I was too happy as we pulled back into the Anchorhead Spaceport a few hours later. Damned place had been miserable the first time around and the extra layer of sand on everything hadn’t done much to improve the aesthetics of the pace. If we’d been on a less secretive mission, it might have been nice to drop by Mayor Klerren’s office, but the classified nature of our trip meant we had to skulk around like a bunch of lowlifes. Well, three lowlifes and a strangely upgraded and designed construction droid.

 

I glanced over at Forex as it traipsed its way out of the hangar and again wondered how I’d managed to offend the Maker so badly that she’d cursed me with a droid like this.

 

Balkar was seated in the lounge just outside of our hanger, sprawled across the leather cushions like he was just another sleazy spacer among the hundreds that populated the place. Considering the kind of work the SIS sometimes did, I figured that might not be too far off the mark. When he saw us, he gave a slight nod of recognition and slid off the chair; I didn’t quite like the extra moment or two of attention he gave Elara, but I swallowed hard to let the moment pass.

 

“Good to see you again, Captain.” Balkar sounded cheerful, which probably meant we were all going to die painfully. “Must feel good to be moving up in the world. I know it feels good to know someone who’s up-and-coming in the Republic military.”

 

“You know how it is, Jonas. I’m just enjoying the roomier accommodations and the ability to order more people around. Not to mention the larger paycheck.” Elara cleared her throat loudly behind me. “Uh, but enough of that. Garza tells me you guys need some help pulling an agent out of Imperial hands.”

 

The SIS agent nodded grimly. “We got a distress signal from our guy a few hours ago. Apparently Imperial Intelligence is onto him; they’ve ordered the ship his company is traveling on to stay grounded her on Tatooine until some interrogators can show up. Obviously, we need to bust him out of there before that happens.”

 

“You have a location on the guy’s ship? And an ID?”

 

“Of course. Our man’s name is Prellon Garn. He’s about my size, skin’s a few shade’s darker than yours. He knows to look out for you, though, and we’ve got his transponder location programmed into this data pad.” Balkar slid the pad into my hand. “We don’t know how much time we’ve got until Intelligence shows up, but my guess is that it’s going to be pretty tight.”

 

“We won’t waste any more time here, then.” I jerked a thumb back at Forex. “You have a speeder that can carry the droid? I’d take our ship, but I’m pretty sure the Imps would see it coming and make a run for it.”

 

He glanced over in Forex’ direction and frowned slightly. “Yeah, I think we can handle that. You definitely can’t take your ship, though – Garn mentioned that they’re closely monitoring for incoming traffic. You’d never make it without them noticing.”

 

I shrugged slightly. “Works for me. Which way to your speeder?”

 

“Docking Bay 42. Look for the cute redhead in the mechanics uniform.” Balkar winked knowingly at me.

 

After a moment deep in thought, I decided discretion was the better part of valor, so I kept my mouth shut and led my squad toward the Docking Bay. I kept my mouth shut when the cute redhead in the mechanic’s uniform met us there, too, and kept it even more shut when Jorgan tried to make some wise-*** comments about it. I was a lot happier once we’d left Anchorhead behind and were on our way to the target area. Balkar had given us some comm frequencies to try to contact Garn with, so I hoped we could handle things efficiently. With a ship full of Imperials around, things might get hairy in a hurry.

 

We left the speeder in some caverns near the ship’s location. I’d been tempted to stash it somewhere slightly closer, but if the Imperials detected it we’d be screwed, and I figured we could hoof it back to the speeder a lot easier than we could fight through however many Imperials were on board that ship. Since Garn wasn’t responding on any of the frequencies, we approached as stealthily as we could with Forex lumbering along with us.

 

Once we got into visual range, I had the rest of the squad hunker down behind some of the rocky outcroppings in the area while I got a better look at what we were dealing with through my macrobinoculars.

 

The Imperial ship was larger than I’d expected, much larger. I didn’t recognize the specific model, but it looked big enough to hold at least a couple squads of Imperial troops. There were at least a half dozen soldiers and a few droids on patrol, as well, and it looked like they’d set up a couple of anti-personnel turrets too. I grimaced as I pondered the situation – without direct contact from the SIS agent, we were pretty much dead in the water. If we launched an attack on the defenses outside the ship, we’d alert everyone inside the ship and we’d lose our man.

 

“Sir, do you see that activity by the ship’s engines?” Elara’s voice derailed my train of thought. “There’s a man there that tentatively matches the description Agent Balkar gave for Prellon Garn.”

 

I peered in the direction of the ships engines; she was right.

 

Jorgan cut into the conversation. “Getting a transmission over one of the secure channels, sir. It’s Garn, says he’s ready to be extracted.”

 

“I’m patching in.” I waited for the trademark beeping that let me know I was in the right channel. “This is Captain

Martell of Republic Special Forces. I heard you need a lift out of here, Agent Garn.”

 

The voice that replied was a bit shaky. Not that I could blame him – it took a special kind of guts to be an undercover operative and I was sure as hell that I didn’t have them. “Yeah, glad you’re here Captain. Imperial Intelligence figured out there was a leak in Special Projects and is already on the way. We’ve got to get a move on.”

 

“Agreed.” My eyes surveyed the scene quickly. “We’ll need some kind of distraction if we’re going to get you moving – taking those Imperials head-on will give the ones inside the ship too much time to react, and we’ll never be able to break off contact at that point.”

 

“One step ahead of you,” Garn replied somewhat cockily. “I’ve been busy rigging the engines with explosives while claiming to be scouting. I’m ready on your signal.”

 

“Copy that, give me twenty seconds.” I flipped back over to the squad comm frequency. “We’re moving in twenty seconds. Forex, on the right. Jorgan, take the squad and turret to our left. I’ve got center. Dorne covers us.”

 

I took a breath as I waited for and heard three acknowledging clicks, then switched back to Garn’s channel.

 

“Garn, we’re good to go on our end. If you’ve got a blaster, put it to good use.”

 

”With pleasure. I’m heading for cover, detonating in 5…4…3…2…”

 

We sprang from our hiding spots as the countdown neared its end. A moment later, the ship was rocked by a series of explosions that echoed across the rocky walls around the area we were in and shot a huge fireball high into the air. The distraction did its job perfectly; the troops patrolling around the ship were all thrown backwards and were too focused on gawking at the explosion or trying to determine its source to see or hear us coming from behind them.

 

I tossed a grenade at the center of the group I was charging to further add to the chaos, then took aim with my rifle. The first two soldiers went down so quickly that I almost felt like I was playing a video game. The third, a severe-looking woman wearing a lieutenant’s uniform, had time to turn around and fire a wild shot in my direction before two of my blaster bolts caught her in the throat and spun her to the ground. There was no time to celebrate, though, as I could see Forex struggling against both turrets and the Imperials manning them.

 

I tossed my last two grenades at the Imperials and charged as directly as I could, skipping behind the containers of equipment scattered throughout the area. As I stood with my back against one particularly sturdy container, I took stock of the situation as best I could. Jorgan was sweeping his area clear with cannon fire, aided by Elara’s pinpoint fire from further up the ridge. Forex had taken out one of the turrets and seemed to have the other turret and its surviving two guards in hand. Garn was providing fire from behind and the rest of the Imperials…

 

The explosions had jammed the exit and cargo ramps shut well enough, but the ship had been damaged enough that its hull integrity had been undermined. Enough so that the bastards are cutting their way through the hull to get out. I quickly activated my comm.

 

“Havoc, be aware hostiles are cutting through the hull to get out. We need to double time it out of here if we’re going to avoid having a few squads of Imperials on our ***. Converge on the target area and clean it up.”

 

I didn’t bother waiting for any acknowledgements – there wasn’t any more damn time. I scythed fire into the Imperials, forcing their heads down. Garn did the same, pinning them further in Forex’s line of fire. Once Jorgan brought his cannon into play, it was over in a heartbeat. I grimaced slightly at the smoke emanating from the Imperial corpses, but this wasn’t the time for moralizing. While we waited for Garn to hustle over, I glanced at each squad member to quickly checking for injuries. Everyone looked good to go; I could breathe again.

 

We took off for the speeder. Garn was in good shape, like you’d expect, but he had still had a hard time keeping up with us when we were all at a dead sprint. By the time we pulled up to the vehicle he was huffing and puffing like one of the Senate bureaucrats out on their lunch break. I was once again grateful that my helmet shielded the expression on my face from those around me – I didn’t exactly want the SIS agent to know how hard I was laughing at him.

 

Balkar was right where we’d left him only a few hours before. He looked way too relaxed for my taste, especially since we’d been the ones to do all the dirty work. To his credit, he did manage to drag his *** out of the chair once he saw Garn with us, but I got the distinct impression that he was more than happy to have us around to do the heavy lifting.

 

“Agent Garn, it’s good to see you alive and well.” Balkar’s wry grin dispelled the idea he might have been worried. “Of course, the captain here’s the best the Republic has to offer. It wasn’t like you were in any real danger.”

 

His fellow agent gave him a disdainful look. “Right. Anyway, it’s not the danger to me that matters, it’s what the Gauntlet weapon means for the Republic. I need to get my information to High Command immediately.”

 

I raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

 

“I’m sorry, Captain. It’s above your pay grade right now, even if you’re commanding Havoc Squad. I’m not sure what the powers that be will want to do with this information, and it’s their call, not mine.” Garn shrugged slightly. “It’s pretty bad, though. Something you and your squad will probably have to handle.”

 

“Guess that means we’re probably heading right back to Coruscant for another briefing with Garza, aren’t we?”

 

“Not probably, definitely.” Balkar smiled apologetically. “You had a message come in while you were out on your mission. General Garza wanted you back in her office ASAP. Guessing she’ll be even more demanding once she gets Garn’s information.”

 

“Super.” I didn’t bother trying to hide the sarcasm. “I would say it’s been good working with you again, Jonas, but it looks like you’ve just gotten us involved in another mess.”

 

Balkar grinned broadly. “That’s what the SIS is here for, right?” He extended his hand, which I took in my own and shook firmly. “Hopefully next time we meet it’s on a less sandy planet.”

 

I snorted. “Can’t imagine there’s a planet as sandy as Tatooine out there. Not sure I want to test that theory though.” Balkar laughed and waved us off.

 

My luck wasn’t any better once we’d gotten back on board the ship – I drew the short straw again and got the first piloting shift again, a job only made worse by Jorgan’s smug grin when he won. I decided I would get my revenge at some point. I was good at that sort of thing.

 

You’re good at being an idiot. A huge, karking idiot.

 

“Sir, are you busy?” The suddenness of hearing Elara’s voice jolted me out of my seat. My reaction seemed to have frightened her in return. “I’m sorry, Sir! I did not mean to startle you.”

 

“No, no it’s fine. You didn’t startle me.” I felt the start of that cold sweat on my back. “I mean, you did startle me, but it wasn’t your fault.” I retook my seat and swiveled to face her. “Take a seat if you like. What’s up?”

 

Elara brushed away a strand of hair from where the sweat had matted it to her forehead. She didn’t just sound and look slightly nervous – she felt nervous. Which was saying something, since I normally had Forex’ level of ability when it came to reading her. “I…I thought you might like some company, Sir. I remembered you saying that you did not enjoy long shifts in the cockpit.”

 

I half-smiled, half-choked on my own tongue.

 

“Uh, yeah. Not a huge fan of having the squad pilot itself in general because of the inevitable fatigue, and definitely not a fan of being up here with nothing but C2-N2 to keep me company.”

 

“And the latest in dubious holo-vids, it seems,” she replied with a somewhat sly smile on her face. I quickly reached behind me to shut off the display. I hoped it’d been a scene with explosions and not one with – “In that case, would you mind if I spent some time here? The med bay is in order, so I found myself with some free time, myself.”

 

“I’m always happy to talk to you, Elara.” I felt my throat tightening. “I mean, you’re a helluva lot better conversationalist than the droids or Jorgan. Even if you keep forgetting to call me Ayrs.”

 

“Of course, Si-Ayrs. I realized I had neglected to thank you for our evening out the other night. It was…nice…to experience some normal socializing outside of the barracks for once.” She smiled wryly. “Even if it required dealing with certain uncouth individuals at the restaurant.” Her grin grew until it outshone the stars outside the viewport. “I must admit that I enjoyed putting them in their place.”

 

“I enjoyed it too,” I replied quickly. Too quickly. “It was funny and all. I mean, I could have taken care of it, but I bet they weren’t prepared to be shot down quite like that. You were really impressive.”

 

Time to shut up now.

 

She flushed slightly. “I think I have you to thank for that.” Her eyes rose from the floor to fix themselves on mine. I felt my heart beat just a little bit harder, felt my breath quicken a little bit more. “You’ve been very supportive during my time in Havoc Squad, affording me far more latitude and providing me with more encouragement than any other Republic officer that I have served with. I never could have expected such treatment, and yet you have been nothing less than courteous and kind.”

 

“Not to mention dashing and hilarious,” I heard my mouth say without permission.

 

Elara put her hands out in front of her, though her voice remained light and teasing. “I would not go quite that far. You are sufficiently dashing to play a role in Republic propaganda, though.”

 

I felt my cheeks warm slightly. “I do the best I can, what can I say.” Then, I cleared my throat to regain some control over the situation. “You’ve done more than anyone could have asked since joining Havoc, though, so you deserve all you’re getting and more. Speaking of which, how’s your brother? Last I heard from him he threatened to kill me.” Specifically, he had threatened to kill me because he’d somehow realized I had feelings for his sister.

 

“He what?” Elara’s eyes widened.

 

“Uh, he said he’d kill me if I ever gave you a hard time.” I faked a calm, easy, smile. “Boys will be boys.”

 

She gave me a suspicious look. “Of course. He is doing quite well – I believe my Havoc Squad activities have smoothed his defection to a large extent. His last message indicated that General Garza has been assisting as well.” The mischievous smile returned. “I believe I said as much the last time you asked, several days ago.”

 

I decided to pretend like I hadn’t heard the last bit.

 

“Garza may be a hard ***, but she’s a good person to have on your side,” I noted. “Maker knows that she’s done her part to look out for me, too. She could have let me wash out more than a few times.”

 

“Si-Ayrs…I could not help but notice something when I was reviewing the squad’s personnel files…”

 

“You mean that my mother served under Garza during the war?” Elara nodded tentatively, obviously worried that she might have crossed the wrong boundary. “Yeah, Garza was her CO for a while. I don’t really know too much else, since I was too young and stupid to ask Mom much about it. I was a dumb kid, more interested in wearing the cool armor and making Mom proud of me.” I stared down at my hands and grimaced. “It’s not the best reason to sign up, but I’d like to think I’m doing my part for the Republic.”

 

Elara was quiet for a minute, and her voice was barely above a whisper when she spoke. “I believe your mother would be quite proud of your service. You are an exemplary soldier.” She hesitated. “And a better man than you give yourself credit for.”

 

I chose my next words carefully, especially knowing her eyes were fixed upon me. “It’s easier to do when you’ve got people around you that make you want to be a better person. So, I guess I should thank you for that.”

 

She didn’t say anything for what felt like forever but was probably only a few seconds. “I hope I am not being too forward in saying that being on the same squad has improved us both, then.” There was something about her eyes that seemed so enticing at that moment, a glow that was mesmerizing. “We have been most fortunate.”

 

“You can say that again.” My voice was practically a croak with how dry my throat was. “You know…” You know, I think I’m in love with you. And, even if I’m not, I think I’d like to see if I might if I got to know you better. “You know, it’s always good to have someone to talk to about stuff.” I coughed loudly. “Things. You know.”

 

You know nothing, you Maker-damned idiot.

 

“Y-yes, of course.” Elara was suddenly as flustered as I was. “Perhaps I should leave you to your thoughts, Sir. Good night.” With that, she turned and fled with an alacrity that was impressive.

 

Almost as impressive as how badly I’d handled the conversation.

Copying/pasting from my other story, for anyone that only reads this one -

 

So, it's been awhile since I've last posted...I had anticipated some trouble keeping up with my writing schedule due to my job, but ended up throwing in a job search/change and a move on top of writer's block and other real life fun. My new job is a lot more time-consuming, but my schedule has stabilized so I intend on getting both of my topics rolling again.

 

The trip back to Coruscant was mostly uneventful, which I was grateful as hell for after my verbal blunders around Elara back on Tatooine. I wanted to chalk it up to the nasty heat or the tension of the mission, but I wasn’t stupid enough to actually believe it – I needed to get my head screwed on straight or things would only get worse. I shivered as images of what worse could mean cycled through my head. Maker save me. I knew I would have to work on things. A lot of things.

 

We filed out of the ship single-file, with Forex taking the lead. I didn’t much like the idea of it being the first thing people saw of Havoc when we disembarked, but Jorgan had pointed out that it would also take the first blaster bolts if we ever got caught in an ambush. I didn’t need much more convincing after that. There weren’t any blaster bolts waiting for us though. In fact, there wasn’t anything waiting for us at all. Not that I’d been expecting a ticker tape parade or anything, but it was still a bit underwhelming.

 

Or maybe you need to grow up a bit. You’re a Special Forces soldier, not a karking mascot.

 

As we exited the hanger, I noticed that Garza had a hover car waiting for us, a newer model too. It was a nice change from having to take standard military transport, which usually involved stuffing as many people as possible into the vehicle and then throwing in a few more and some equipment for good measure.

 

The pilot looked about as appealing as Forex did, but in between his grunting and yelling at other vehicles, it turned out he had some real good stories about his days in the military. He didn’t like talking about the Sack, though; could barely even make it through the sentence telling me he didn’t want to think about it anymore. Made me wonder if he’d been there, or seen some things he wished he hadn’t. Reminded me a bit of how Mom was after we’d heard the news…

 

He dropped us off at the usual staging area outside the Senate tower. I had half a mind to ask for his contact information to catch up with him again, but thought better of it after a few seconds of thinking it over. Guy didn’t need me bothering him for old war stories when he had other things on his mind.

 

I happened to notice that Elara had done something to her hair that made it look real nice, but couldn’t tell what exactly since I wasn’t a hair expert. Or something other than an idiot, really. All of her looked nice, really. Maker save me, I feel like I'm back in high school.

 

“Sir.”

 

My attention returned to her hair. Whatever she’d done made it shine and glisten in the sun as she took in the area the same way she had the first time we’d come.

 

“Sir.”

 

Sometimes I wished I still had that sense of wonder about the galaxy around me, but those moments didn’t last very long. Too much **** had gone on for me to feel that way, though, no matter how much I -

 

I felt a sharp object prodding me in the shoulder. Jumping back in surprise, I turned to find Forex staring me full in the face. I had to work very hard not to jump back again. “What do you want, Forex?”

 

“Sir, you appeared to be distracted while standing in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. I did not want you to be harmed by a reckless driver or an Imperial agent lucky enough to spot an opportunity. You are too valuable to the Republic as a –“

 

“Maker save me. Enough, Forex. I don’t think I need to worry about nefarious Imperial plots to run over pedestrians in the streets of Coruscant.” I scowled at the droid and tried not to look at Elara or Jorgan, especially after I noticed the expressions on their faces out of the corner of my eye. “Anyway, we should get going – General Garza doesn’t like waiting.”

 

“Well, we were waiting for you, sir,” Jorgan pointed out unhelpfully. “We’re ready to go if you are.”

 

I glared at him with the intensity of Tatooine’s suns, but he just stared back, unflinching. I decided to allow him to win this one and motioned for the squad to follow me as I led the way to the tower. Between Forex’ clanking and Jorgan looking around as if he suspect every passerby of being a potential target, we got our fair share of dirty looks, but we managed to get to the tower and then Garza’s office in one piece. The aide, a petite Mirialan who looked as scared of Forex as I was, waved us through without delay. Guess we made Garza wait anyway, hopefully she’s not pissed.

 

The general was standing in her usual position by her console, hands clasped in front of her as she scowled at whatever data was on her screen. I half-wondered if there was any sort of data that wouldn’t make her scowl, but thought better of asking her.

 

“General, Havoc Squad at your disposal.” I clicked my heels and swung to attention; my squad members followed suit a half-second later. Even Forex, that karking hunk of scrap metal. “I forwarded our mission report from Tatooine and we’re ready for whatever’s next.”

 

“That’s good to hear, Captain.” Her voice was suspiciously light and friendly, which made me suspicious that she was about to unloading something terrible on us. “Unfortunately, the information you gathered on Tatooine was only part of what we need in order to determine what needs to be done about this ‘Gauntlet’ device. Both the SIS and Special Forces have their work cut out for them.”

 

“Definitely, sir.” I hoped she hadn’t had us fly halfway across the galaxy for some mangled, half-assed, pep talk about the Imperial superweapon the SIS had uncovered. “So what does that mean for us?”

 

Garza glared at me for a second, apparently annoyed with my informality. “Havoc Squad needs more members, especially those with the technical expertise with explosives that the four of you lack.” I opened my mouth, but she hushed me before I could speak. “Even you, Captain.” I shut up immediately, which spawned a smile on Garza’s face. Jorgan’s too, I noticed. “In any case, Havoc Squad needs to be brought up to full strength before it is sent into action against the Gauntlet.”

 

“Agreed, sir. Do you have candidates in mind?” I wondered if she was going to ask me to take in an SIS agent or two.

 

“One so far.” She tapped a pair of keys on her console, which whirred to life. A holographic image of a particularly angry looking Weequay sprung to life. “Meet Tanno Vik, former member of the Republic military and current associate of the Balmorran resistance.”

 

I stiffened slightly at mention of Balmorra, remembering what Mom had told me about her time there. I shrugged those feelings aside, though – we didn’t have time for me to get distracted by unimportant things. “Why the former? Did he leave the military to fight for Balmorra?”

 

“Hardly,” Garza snorted. “Vik was dishonorably discharged from the Republic military several years ago and spent the intermediate period taking part in several dubious border actions before making his way to Balmorra. I can’t say what his precise motives are there, but I suspect they are not entirely honorable.”

 

Judging from the huff I heard from behind me, Elara was barely repressing her indignation. I replied as I quickly as I could to keep Garza’s attention on me. “Begging your pardon, sir, but why do we want him in Havoc Squad, then? We’re a team, and he doesn’t sounds like the kind of person I want in my squad, let alone the kind of soldier who should be in one of the most elite units in the galaxy.”

 

“True, but there was more to my decision than whether he is the ideal soldier.” I opened my mouth to speak but clamped it shut before I could actually say anything. She’d called it her decision, which meant there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it. “Vik is arguably the most gifted explosives expert to have worn the Republic’s uniform in the last fifteen years, even better than Fuse. While he might prove difficult to work with, he also provides expertise unmatched by any active soldier.” Garza’s eyes narrowed as she looked me squarely in the face. “And I believe you are more than capable of reigning in his less desirable characteristics.”

 

“Well….I appreciate that, General.” I swallowed hard as I tried to figure out whether she was blowing smoke up my *** or genuinely meant it. “Why was Vik dishonorably discharged?”

 

This time it was the general’s turn to flinch. “There were a series of serious incidents involving discipline and insubordination which culminated in a conviction for profiteering and misappropriation of equipment and funds.”

 

“What?!” I heard Elara say in unison with me.

 

“I am not denying that there might be issues with Specialist Vik, but I am quite confident that they are manageable.” It seemed easy for her to say that given that she wouldn’t be the one actually managing them, but I didn’t really feel like mentioning that to her. “I am also confident that you will follow your orders in this regard.”

 

“Understood, sir.” The room felt a bit hotter as she stared at me the way adults did at children who’d done something real dumb. “When do we ship out?”

 

“Immediately. The SIS is currently heavily involved in obtaining further intelligence on the Gauntlet, and Havoc Squad must be prepared to act on it on short notice.”

 

“Understood, sir. We’ll be ready whenever you need us.”

 

“Of course, Captain.” Garza nodded along absent-mindedly. “Your contact on Balmorra will be a senior member of the Balmorran Resistance, so you will need to be on your best behavior. The Balmorrans’ relationship with the Republic has been increasingly strained since the Treaty of Coruscant was signed. Somewhat understandably, they view the Republic as having abandoned them to the Empire’s mercies.”

 

“We left them hanging with the treaty, and again when they rose up.” It wasn’t like the Balmorrans didn’t have good reason to distrust the Republic. They’d been fighting for ten years with almost no help from us. “Can’t say I blame them, sir. “

 

“I didn’t say you should,” she shot back. “Nevertheless, you must remember that your mission to locate and secure Tanno Vik must take priority over any other endeavors, even if you wish to extend a helping hand to the Balmorrans.”

 

My cheeks flushed as I realized she’d seen right through me – I did want to help the Balmorrans if I could. Maker knows they need the assistance. “I understand, General.” I was curious about her word choice – to secure Vik –but decided not to press my luck. “We’ll get Vik and be on our way without any unnecessary delay.”

 

“Good. I will be reviewing technical expert candidates while you are on Balmorra and should make my choice by the time Vik has joined the squad. Once you have completed your tasks on Balmorra, I will inform you of where to go to rendezvous with your next squad addition.”

 

I snapped to attention; my squad followed suit a heartbeat later. “Yes, sir! We’ll get the job done.”

 

The trip back to the spaceport was a lot less pleasant than the one to the tower, since we got stuffed into a standard transport with a half dozen navy hotshots and a fighter pilot who spent way too much time trying to impress Elara for my liking. Not that she was having any of that, of course. You karking idiot. Maker save me.

 

Garza had arranged for a full resupply for us, which left us with some time to kill before we could leave Coruscant for Balmorra. I wished she’d told us she was having it done before we’d gone all the way to the spaceport, but I figured she didn’t much care whether our downtime was boring or not.

 

Luckily, Forex managed to plug into the local network and found a small café to pass the time in. The place wasn’t much to look at – old posters for events that had long since finished, and furniture that looked even older than I was – but they made a mean cup of caf and the nerf steak was delicious, too. I must have been a bit too enthusiastic about eating it, though, judging from the looks Elara and Jorgan were giving me.

 

“Too bad they weren’t serving this steak that day in the cafeteria, eh?” I didn’t like that smug look on Jorgan’s face, or the way his features twisted into the kind of smirk that was totally inappropriate for a soldier to direct at his superior officer. I felt a flash of heat run down my spine. “Might have avoided that entire mess all together.”

 

“Maybe,” I agreed. My eyes surveyed each of my squad mates in turn to judge their reactions. “That’s in the past, though. I try to put things in the past in the past so, uh, we can focus on the future.” I clapped my hands together loudly, attracting the annoyed attention of the only other customer in the place. “I bet we’re all excited to talk about our next squad member, aren’t we?”

 

For once, it was the droid that had my back right away. “Indeed, Sir! I trust –“

 

“Actually,” Elara began smoothly. Too smoothly. “I must admit that I am more than a little curious about this so-called “Nerf Steak Incident”. You have had an exemplary career without so much as a blemish on your record apart from one, isolated, incident at a military mess hall.”

 

“A classified incident,” I reminded her. I shot her a dirty look, but it only made her smile slightly. That was okay in my book, really. “A highly classified incident that General Garza personally classified for very good reasons.”

 

“I don’t think protecting your reputation is a very good reason,” Jorgan quipped as he gulped down his drink. He’d ordered something the waitress had called ‘hot chocolate’, and seemed to be enjoying it immensely. “But what do I know, I’m not running the outfit after all.”

 

“Yeah, exactly.” I nervously cut into the remainder of my steak and took a bite, making sure to chew as loudly and slowly as possible to make it clear that the conversation is over.

 

“That might well be true, Sir, but surely you could share the truth with the members of your squad?” Elara’s eyes were twinkling like stars, as dangerous to me as they were beautiful. “We could all use the amusement, I am sure.”

 

I nearly choked on my steak, but managed to avoid an ignominious end by taking a long drink of water from my glass. Elara’s eyes narrowed with concern for a moment, but reverted to their amused state once she saw I was okay. I shot her another dirty look, a more sour one this time, but she seemed to be enjoying her utter betrayal of me.

 

“Is it really that important to you?” I nearly choked again. “To all of you, I mean?”

 

Jorgan merely smirked, but Elara nodded sort of ambiguously. I wondered if she’d caught my misstep, or if she was just worried about stepping over some imagined line. Forex looked too busy doing whatever it was that a homicidally patriotic droid did in its spare time was. Probably programming itself for ‘maximum destruction of dastardly Imperial resources’ or something.

 

“Well,” I began slowly. “We were at the cafeteria eating lunch that day, like normal. And they were serving nerf steak at the cafeteria. I like nerf steak, so I decided to have that for lunch. Umm, I don’t really remember what Jorgan was having, probably nerf steak too, maybe we should ask him?”

 

I turned to the Cathar, but he just crossed his arms over his chest and tapped a finger on the table. “Keep going, sir.” Elara stifled a giggle and leaned forward – one part of me felt my heart flutter a bit at that, the other part wondered what I was getting myself into.

 

“It turned out that the nerf steak was not the greatest, definitely not good enough for me, at least. It wasn’t just me, either.” I scratched at an itch on my neck that wasn’t there. “Uh, there were a lot of other people that didn’t look happy with it at all.”

 

“Oh my!” Forex sounded horrified, as if I had told it that Republic soldiers had been taking public oaths of loyalty to the Sith Emperor. “It is entirely wrong for heroic Republic personnel to be subjected to substandard food! How can our forces be sent against the villainous Imperial hordes without proper sustenance?!”

 

The three of us simply stared at it in stunned silence. Not taking the hint, Forex continued its rant.

 

“The people of the Republic must know that their brave defenders of truth and justice are appropriately supplied and supported in their quest to defeat the Empire and bring the light of a new golden era to the galaxy. It distresses me to no end that the Republic would allow such a crime to take place on its own capital planet –“

 

“Enough, Forex.” I raised a hand up to silence the droid. “The Republic has criminal gangs running rampant through parts of its capital. For kark’s sake, even the Imperials were running operations here. I think we’ll all survive some mediocre food.”

 

The table went silent, and for a moment it felt like I’d escaped from the trap Elara had treacherously laid for me. Then, in a flash, it all came crumbling down.

 

“Funny, didn’t seem like you were that understanding about the situation back then, sir.” Jorgan leaned over the table and gave Elara an odd look, as if trying to entice her to join in his crusade to undermine me in every way. Not that she would take the bait, of course –

 

“I would be interested to hear what Captain Martell did,” Elara added cruelly, twisting the knife further into the wound. “It sounds as if he must have been quite affected for things to escalate to the extent that the record had to be sealed.”

 

Kark this. I bit down on my lip, hoping to pass out from the pain or something, but it ended up just hurting real bad. I decided to be the bigger man – person – and demonstrate that I had the maturity needed to reveal my moments of weakness to the squad.

 

“So…I decided that something needed to be said or done to improve the situation. Forex over here might have been exaggerating a bit, but I figured the troops do need high quality food.” I took a deep breath as I launched into the thick of it. “I went into the kitchen and discussed things with the chef in charge of the nerf steak and provided several examples of how he might improve his preparation and cooking. Things got, uh, a bit heated. That’s about all there is to it.”

 

Jorgan snorted loudly and began laughing under his breath.

 

“I somehow doubt a mere ‘heated’ exchange would result in a classification of the incident, Sir.” Elara’s voice was singsong and bright even as her words were like daggers. “Perhaps you could go into further detail.”

“If he can’t, I could,” Jorgan stated with a ridiculously amused expression on his face. “I’d like to be sure everyone knows what our fearless leader did.”

 

“Now just wait a minute,” I began, jabbing an accusatory finger at the Cathar. “If I remember right, you encouraged me to speak up to the chef, something to the extent that a true soldier fights for those that won’t fight for themselves.”

 

He shrugged helplessly.

 

“Anyway.” I glanced over at Elara, but her expression was a simple mix of piqued interest and genuine amusement. I wondered what she’d think of me after the rest came out. “The chef, some guy named Ramsay, was waiting for me once I got in there. He got real defensive about things and started shouting stuff about how I wasn’t authorized to be there. I kept my cool as best I could, and offered some advice since I have more than my fair share of experience with nerf steaks, and I think it’s fair to say I do a damn good job with mine. He didn’t, uh, appreciate my advice and things escalated.” I felt some sweat beading at the border of my face and hair, so I tried to wrap things up. “It wasn’t the worst food fight the place has ever seen and most of my punches didn’t connect with anyone, so General Garza felt it best to let things slide.”

 

“I do not believe it,” Elara replied breathlessly.

 

“I know, the nerve of that guy.” I appreciated her support.

 

“No, Sir.” She shook her head vigorously. “I do not believe that you could truly think the steaks you cook demonstrate the culinary acumen you claim to have. Both Sergeant Jorgan and I have experienced your nerf steak and I must regretfully inform you that your cooking is lacking as well.”

 

Jorgan looked like he was about to keel over from laughter; it took all I had not to do something about it.

 

“I mean, I think my steaks are alright.” I looked at my compatriots, but Jorgan was still holding back the laughter and Elara was simply shaking her head as her eyes twinkled from her own repressed amusement. I decided to look into getting Forex retroactively named as my XO. “Anyway, this Ramsay guy got upset because he might or might not have ended up having several gallons of food product dumped on him, so he filed a report on me. Totally uncalled for.”

 

“Several gallons of food poured on the chef, an entire cafeteria ruined to the point of requiring a total refurbishing, six arrests. I can’t imagine why they filed a report, sir.” I decided to look into getting Jorgan retroactively removed from Havoc Squad, too as he turned to Elara to continue. “Luckily for the captain, General Garza has a soft spot for him.”

 

“Indeed.” She nodded sagely. “Though I believe that soft spot is quite understandable. Erm –.” Her cheeks flushed fully red in an instant and she looked away.

 

“Err, definitely.” I stumbled over the word, and found myself unable to decide what else to say. Fortunately, I was spared any further trouble by the beeping of my comm – a text-only message revealed that the crews had finished their restocking, and our Thunderclap was good to go. I showed the message to Elara and Jorgan and slid out of the booth to pay our bill with our expense card. The rest of the squad waited outside, and they quietly filed into line behind me once I reconnected with them.

 

The walk over was quiet, which would normally have been a good thing, but felt sort of awkward now that they knew what the one mark on my record was. Now that Elara knew what it was, really. It really wasn’t that big a deal or anything, but I didn’t want her to think I was some sort of immature idiot that didn’t take things seriously enough. Not because of my feelings for her, but because I wanted to be the kind of soldier worthy of commanding one like her. Not that I have feelings like that, of course. It’s just a mild infatuation.

 

I decided to lock myself in my cabin for the night and let Jorgan pilot the ship off Coruscant and to Balmorra.

 

There was plenty of crap left to do, after all – basic mission planning, reading up on the reports from the Balmorran Resistance and our own agents, and catching up on the latest public sources as well. I’d seen the classified recording of Grand Marshal Cheketta, and knew all too well we were going to be facing something a lot more challenging than a simple connection with Vik, regardless of what Garza or her agents told her.

 

Poor bastard deserved better. Volunteered to fight for Balmorra and her people years after he could have retired and hung his blaster up for good. All the old marshal had gotten was a public execution by the nastiest looking Sith I’d ever seen; one who’d been smiling as she kicked Cheketta’s head away from his body. The Maker watches over him now. It’s up to you to make sure he didn’t die in vain.

 

We were still a few hours out when I heard a soft knock at the door. The first tap was loud and forceful, the second more delicate and hesitant. I wondered why they weren’t just hitting the damn buzzer, but maybe it was broken.

I hit the button at my desk and heard the door open with a soft hiss. “What’s up, Jorgan?”

 

“It – “ it’s actually Elara. Maker save me.

 

“Sorry, Elara.” I swiveled my chair around to face her. **** me. I wondered if my hair still looked alright after hours hunched over a holo display. “What can I do for you?” I smiled at her, then realized the smile might come across wrong, so I slammed my mouth shut instead.

 

“Sir, I completed the standard report on our inventory , as well as the preliminary mission plan. I thought you would want to see it before we landed and rendezvoused with the Resistance and local Republic commanders.” She took a pair of steps forward and leaned over to hand me a data pad. I tried not to notice how her civvies clung to her curves just perfectly, even as I noticed that she smelled real nice, like the way Rissa had when we went out to a nice place. “Also, I wanted to make sure I had not acted inappropriately at the café. I realized that you were somewhat uncomfortable discussing the situation and was trying to –“

 

I held a hand up. “Relax, Elara. If I couldn’t handle being ribbed a bit about every stupid thing I’d ever done, I wouldn’t have survived this long. Trust me, the Nerf Steak Incident wasn’t nearly as bad as the time my friends at the academy and I dumped bunch of wine on a visiting general.”

 

“Really?” Her eyes widened slightly, and a girlish giggle escaped from her lips. “I do not remember that being in your record.”

 

“And I don’t remember you telling me you were planning on reviewing my record,” I replied with a lazy wink. “See anything you like?”

 

Why the hell did you say that for.

 

She flushed slightly. “You have an exemplary record, Sir. There is a lot to like.”

 

“Glad to hear it, Elara. Um." I wondered if she was only referring to my record with the last bit. "But I wish you’d start calling me by my name when we’re off-duty. Sir and my rank are too formal; we’ve known each other too long for that.” I tried to lighten the mood with a wry smile. "We've discussed it before."

 

“Yes, Si-Ayrs.” She flushed again. “Are you sure that General Garza is making the right choice about Tanno Vik? I reviewed his personnel record, and she was being quite generous with her description of his service. There were several additional instances where innocent civilians were wounded or killed due to his negligence, and it appears that he enjoys ignoring orders.”

 

“I saw the same thing. Trust me, I’m not any happier about it than you are, Elara.” I sighed heavily. Tanno Vik was going to be a massive headache, but there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it if Garza wanted him in Havoc. “We’ll deal with him the best we can. If he’s too much of a distraction or ignores my orders, you can count on me to get him in line.” To prove my point, as well as prove that I was an idiot, I flexed my right arm at her.

 

She laughed softly. “I would expect no less, Si-Ayrs. I would trust no one else more to handle a man like Vik.”

 

“Glad we agree then,” I replied lightly. I jerked a thumb at the holo of Balmorra. “I’m curious, what does the Empire say about this place.”

 

“I was never told much of anything...but it was not within the scope of my training or my initial assignments within the Imperial military.” She paused, considering her words. “Might I ask why you wanted to know?”

 

“Just curiously mainly. Balmorra’s a place I always wanted to go but never could, and it’s not like it’s the kind of place you visit on holidays now.” I sighed. “Maker knows if it’ll ever be – feels like we’ll be fighting over this place for years to come. This definitely isn’t the way I wanted to finally get here.”

 

“If I might ask – what about Balmorra made you want to visit? It certainly has immense strategic value, but I was under the impression it was an industrial planet that did not have much value for tourists or visitors.” She gave me a curious look. “It does not seem like the sort of planet that would normally interest you.”

 

“Heh. Normally it wouldn’t.” I chuckled slightly and stared at the wall behind her to avoid making eye contact. “My parents met on Balmorra during the war, guess I have a soft spot for the place because of it.”

 

“I see,” she said in a voice that suggested she wanted to know more but didn’t want to pry.

 

“Dad was a Jedi, assigned as part of the effort to better coordinate the Republic and Jedi Order’s efforts against the Empire. Depending on who you ask, Mom and her squad rescued him from either a massive Imperial force or local wildlife. The record’s a bit unclear and my sources were about as biased as you’d expect.”

 

Elara laughed lightly. “Your parents were both formidable in their own way, I am sure.”

 

“Damn right,” I replied quietly. “Guess I thought I’d make it here with them someday, even after the treaty was signed. Then…everything happened. Funny how things work out.” I let out a nervous laugh. “Always thought I’d be coming here with the people I care about the most.” My eyes moved from the wall to the floor. “Guess I still am, in my own way.”

 

She moved her hand toward my shoulder, like she was going to comfort me, but caught herself before making contact. “Si-Ayrs, I –

 

I wasn’t sure whether it was courage or stupidity that was fueling me, but it didn’t much matter. I was tired of all the ********, of dancing around and making a fool of myself. Of making myself miserable by being so damn afraid to be hurt that I ended up hurting myself anyway by walling everyone else away. “Especially you, Elara.” I popped off the chair and stood facing her, with only a couple feet of space between us. A couple of feet that felt like a couple of miles. “I…I think you’ve known that for a while, though.” I winced in anticipation of her response.

 

“I – .” I’d never seen her flustered like this, and as her silence stretched on, I began to regret every word I’d said. Damn it. Say you’re interested or say you’re not. Say something. Please. I worried that I’d somehow managed to **** things up even more than usual.

 

“Elara, I didn’t mean to –“

 

“I…I am glad that you said something. Ayrs.” She gave me a shy smile that made my feet feel suddenly unsteady and my stomach to dip and do a roll to the left. “I have become quite…fond of you. You’ve helped me far more and made me feel better than anyone has before. I was afraid to ask if you might feel the same way, too.”

 

I wanted to sing. I wanted to dance. Mostly I wanted to kiss her and hold her and let her know that I’d been hers for longer than she could have imagined.

 

“Maker save me, Elara, I wish you’d told me that a few weeks ago at least.” I laughed nervously. “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to hear you say that and to tell you how I felt about you too.”

 

She shifted her feet uncomfortably. “I’m just – Personnel Code Section Two discourages romantic relationships between personnel, particularly commanding officers. I want to spend more time with you. I want to be closer to you.” She bit her lip nervously. “But I don’t want to negatively impact squad performance.” Her eyes met mine, and I noticed she was looking at me in a way I’d never seen before; longingly, like she wanted me to tell her everything would work out almost as badly as I wanted to say it to her.

 

I felt myself teetering on the edge of doing something stupid or passing out or finding some way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or something, I didn’t even know what.

 

“I think we can work together to ensure squad performance isn’t affected. You definitely make up for my deficiencies in that area, at least.” She smiled. I smiled back. “You’re an amazing woman, Elara, and I’d do anything to show you that we can make this work.”

 

“Our service records would suggest we are both capable of navigating complex situations,” she agreed, in her own way. “And Personnel Code Section One does encourage personnel to spend time together socially.” She tilted her head and brushed a stray hair from her face as I stepped toward her. “Correlations between interpersonal compatibility and unit performance are…” I was practically on top of her; her breath was warm against my cheeks and it took all of my self-control to let her finish. “…strongly positive.”

 

I wrapped my arms around her and pressed her against me. I felt her wrap her arms around my back and her hands dig into my shoulder blades. Our noses clashed for a moment, prompting nervous giggles that – for once – were happy instead of strained. Her eyes closed in anticipation, mine did the same. And then my lips found hers and it didn’t matter that mine were dry and chapped or that her breath was warm and heavy. She smelled of something sweet and tasted like something sweeter. I felt her fingers digging deeper into my back - with anyone else it would have hurt, but with her it just made it all feel so much better.

 

Best of all was the realization that she had wanted this as much as I had; that she had seen in me even a fraction of what I saw in her. I felt exhilarated and terrified and hopefully and uncertain all at once; I recognized it as the same feeling I had in my stomach whenever I looked at her. Most of all, I felt like I would float off into space if Elara hadn’t been holding on to me.

 

We stayed like that for what might have been five seconds or five hours; either way, it hadn’t been long enough when she pulled away. I leaned forward and rested my forehead on hers, then took my right hand from her waist and ran my thumb and index finger together up and down her face to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. She closed her eyes and smiled gently as I stroked her cheek.

 

“Stars, you’re beautiful Elara.” I didn’t really know what to say other than the obvious. “I can’t tell you how this makes me feel.”

 

“I suspect the same way it makes me feel.” Elara smiled and leaned in to steal a quick kiss. After our lips parted, she lowered her head and nuzzled my neck gently. I moved my hand back to her waist as she adjusted both of hers to rest upon my chest and then moved her head to rest between them. We held each other in silence and that was fine. More than fine. I would have held her forever if I could have.

 

“I just hope Jorgan doesn’t get jealous that I’m giving you extra attention.” She giggled nervously. “The fur really flies when he gets upset.”

 

“We must be discreet,” she said as she moved one hand up and down my chest. I shivered slightly at the sensation of her delicate touch through the thin shirt I was wearing. “We cannot allow this to interfere with our duties.”

 

“Discreet is my middle name, Elara.” I winked at her, prompting her to roll her eyes.

 

“You are many things, Ayrs, but discreet is not one of them,” she replied with a wrinkled nose. “Charming, caring and endearing, perhaps.”

 

“Not to mention devastatingly handsome,” I replied, with a devastatingly sexy smile on my face.

 

She looked up at me and smiled as she traced the scar on my cheek with a single finger. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could the comm on my console beeped loudly. ****!

 

I disengaged from our embrace as regretfully as I ever had done anything, and punched the button. “Yeah?”

 

“It’s Jorgan, we’re a few minutes out from the orbital station, so I figured you might want to strap in somewhere for the landing.”

 

“Got it. Thanks.” I closed the call. Thanks for nothing.

 

I turned and returned to Elara, who was looking at me somewhat shyly. “We’ll have to pick this up some other time. We could use a debriefing.”

 

She turned a cute shade of pink. “Discretion truly is your calling card.” Then she leaned onto her tiptoes and kissed me lightly on the lips. Before I could come up with a witty reply, she’d turned and she was gone.

 

I slumped into my chair, feeling like five years of weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I felt good…I felt right…I felt like I hadn’t in so long, like that hole in my chest was maybe just a bit closer to being filled. It almost felt like I could take the entire Empire on my own. With Elara at my side, maybe I could.

 

It felt like forever since someone had felt about me like I felt about them. Except for the Imperials and Sith.

 

It felt like forever since I’d felt this good.

 

Now I would have to earn it.

Edited August 9, 2015 by Lesaberisa

Hehe, love the Nerf Steak Incident......and I was definitely picturing Gorden Ramsey. Then the ending.....awwww, the sweetest thing and now I have the warm fuzzies. Edited August 9, 2015 by alaurin

Finally!! An explanation of the nerf steak incident!! Nicely done!

Ahaha, the truth comes out. And then things get even better.

I walked into the briefing room with a spring in my step and found the rest of my squad almost ready to go. I couldn’t decide whether to deal with Elara’s attention directly or avoid it entirely, so I settled on staring at a small dent in the wall just above her head. It seemed to work for me, and I hoped it did for her, too.

 

“Uh. So…we made it to Balmorra in one piece. Great work, Sergeant Jorgan, really impressive flying.” I gave him a sarcastic thumbs up, which he responded to with a rude gesture that I could have written him up for. “Republic intervention in the system is still strictly unofficial. If we’re captured, the Republic will deny any knowledge of our mission and will leave us to the tender mercies of the Empire.” I flinched as I thought about what that would mean for Elara. “So we’re going to get in, grab Vik, and get the hell out. If we can **** up a few Imps while we’re at it, great, but that won’t be our priority. There are other resources in play to help the Balmorrans.”

 

“So we’re going to assist the Balmorrans whenever possible, then.” Jorgan’s laugh was short and loud. “Fine by me.”

 

“Excuse me, Sergeant Jorgan, but that is not what Captain Martell said.” Forex corrected. “We have our sworn duty to serve the Republic, even if it requires us to forgo the responsibility of –“

 

“Forex.” I held out a hand. “Shut. Up.”

 

“Yes sir!” It shot back into an upright position and stood still.

 

“If we had the time and operational flexibility, I would have loved to offer the Balmorrans a helping hand. Unfortunately, we’re not just hampered by the need for secrecy - the timetable for our operation against the Gauntlet superweapon is going to be pretty short. SIS is still working on securing the intelligence we need on it, but we can’t afford to waste time on our missions leading up to it.” I nodded toward Elara, trying real hard not to notice the slight flush in her cheeks or the way her eyes glowed. “Lieutenant Dorne.”

 

“Yes, sir.” She stepped forward. “Because of the operational security concerns for this mission, we will be utilizing our neutral-design equipment and will only confirm our Republic affiliation with pre-approved members of the Resistance. The orbital station is staffed by several members of the Balmorran Resistance who will also ensure that any record of this ship will be traced to a civilian shipping company based on Nar Shaddaa. This will allow us to fly freely around the planet, save for certain areas that are under direct Imperial control.”

 

She paused and shot me a quick glance. Despite my best effort at maintaining self-control, I shot her a shy smile that prompted her cheeks to flush slightly. I hoped Jorgan didn’t notice.

 

“Our primary contact is a former Republic military officer named Ardon who resigned his commission to fight for the Balmorran Resistance. Despite his military record, his SIS profile indicates that we should not expect a warm welcome from him, as he made multiple derogatory remarks about the Republic’s abandonment of Balmorra before his resignation. We should probably expect similar attitudes from other members of the Resistance.”

 

“We’ll be on our best behavior,” I assured her.

 

She nodded quickly before continuing. “Unfortunately, we have no concrete intelligence as to Tanno Vik’s current location or assignment, so we will be forced to rely on Resistance sources and SIS assets to track him down and…encourage his cooperation.” Her brow furrowed as she considered her wording. “As General Garza noted in her briefing, Specialist Vik had a very...checkered…career in the Republic military and it is highly likely that it will require a considerable amount of effort to secure his cooperation.”

 

I sighed heavily. Vik better as hell be worth this trouble, or there’s going to be hell to pay…by someone.

 

“Commander Ardon is awaiting our arrival in what the local Republic-aligned troops refer to as ‘Bugtown’. Apparently, local insectoids were exposed to radioactive waste and mutated into much more aggressive and violent creatures. The local forces decided to name the location after them.”

 

“Bugs.” I shuddered. “Why did it have to be bugs?”

 

“I’m sure you’ll do fine Ay-Sir.” She caught herself. Barely. “Commander Madine is the ranking Republic officer in Bugtown and should help smooth over any conflicts with Ardon and the Resistance. Their position is somewhat perilous, though, and we may well be required to provide them with assistance in order to proceed further.”

 

“We’ll do what we can. Thanks for summing it up, I appreciate it.” I felt something unpleasant in my throat. “Lieutenant.”

 

Jorgan gave me a suspicious look, which lingered or a few minutes. Hopefully he would just let slide; he’d given me enough crap about Elara as it was. Forex didn’t react at all, but I suspected Forex wouldn’t react to much unless it gave it a chance to destroy something Imperial or go on one of its rants about the glory of the Republic.

 

The squad split up to grab their gear. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder as I headed to the cockpit – once the techs in the station had done their job, we’d be heading out immediately. I didn’t want to waste any more time off-planet than we had to, especially if the Resistance or Vik proved difficult to deal with. Which they will. As I plopped down in the pilot seat, my thoughts drifted back to my quarters; the warmth of Elara’s breath mixing with mine, the feel of her body pressed against mine, the sweet taste of –

 

“We’ve got clearance to go, sir.”

 

I turned and found Jorgan staring at me with the intensity of the twin suns of Tatooine. “Roger that, Jorgan.” He didn’t move so much as an inch, but he didn’t say anything either. “You, uh, you can go. Strap in. Get ready for action. And make sure that everyone else is secure, too. Even that damned droid.”

 

“Which one?” He bared his teeth in a smile.

 

“Both of them, I guess.” Forex was at least useful in combat. The karking protocol droid could go out the airlock for all I cared. “If we happened to lose C2-N2 in the process…” I let my voice trail off, until I took a second to imagine Garza’s reaction if we lost some of her precious equipment. “Scratch that last one. Make sure that hunk of scrap is secure too.”

 

“Whatever you say, sir.” He fired off a casual salute, which I returned. As he left, I breathed a sigh of relief and made a mental note to avoid thinking about Elara for a while. At least until there’s the possibility of a cold shower soon after.

 

It was with some relief that I got the go-ahead from station control.

 

There were some Imperial ships orbiting the planet, but none seemed all that interested in a single, ostensibly civilian, ship making its way to one of the less desirable areas of the planet. I wasn’t sure if the lax security was a flaw with their occupation strategy or just a representation of how stretched the Empire was, even when it came to a system as important as Balmorra. Either way, I wasn’t going to complain, because it made our insertion a hell of a lot easier. There’d be enough trouble with Imperials and their collaborators once we hit groundside.

 

My piloting skills were pretty decent even without as much practice as I would have liked, but the approach to Bugtown was a real pain in the ***. Even beyond dealing with the tracking systems the Imperials had in place, some idiot had decided to place the landing pads on elevated platforms. Damned things were much smaller than the regulation pads I was used to landing at, too. Still, I was pretty satisfied with the job I did, even if I scraped the paint off a transport they’d squeezed onto our assigned pad.

 

The first thing I noticed as we descended the ramp was the decent number of Republic troops wearing Balmorran uniforms or even civilian gear. They were trying to hide their true identities, but the formations they were marching in gave them away even faster than the precision with which they did everything. I wondered if Commander Madine or his staff thought doing something as simple as changing uniforms would trick anyone that spent more than a few minutes observing the area. Maybe he knows and doesn’t care. Maybe he wants them to know.

 

I shrugged and motioned for the squad to follow me. We kept our blasters down by our sides, but otherwise we were at the ready. Garza’s intel had suggested the area was not as secure as we would have liked, and there was no point in taking chances. Forex took point, as always, with the rest of us trailing behind in our diamond formation. The soldiers milling about took notice of us, but beyond a couple of half-waves we didn’t get much of a response from the Republic troops. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but notice how many of the Balmorrans were giving us hostile looks.

 

They’re probably suspicious about what we’re doing here. Even though we’ve finally started giving them more significant help, it’s been years since the Republic really stood beside and fought for them. Maker knows what they’ve been through during the meantime.

 

Actually, I didn’t need the Maker to know what the Balmorrans had been through during the years of occupation. What you couldn’t find on the HoloNet was easily available from the underground reporting – the mass incarcerations, executions of civilian authority figures and innocent non-combatants as retribution for Resistance attacks, the strip-mining of as much of Balmorra’s industrial production as the Imperials could manage…and the utter domination of every aspect of daily life under the Imperial boot. It was the same sad story told across the galaxy, and exactly why the Balmorrans needed the Republic to get off its *** and do something about it.

 

We should have done more to help. We shouldn’t have left them to the Empire.

 

I shook my head.

 

You could do something too. You’re here to take one of their people off the front lines; the least you can do is do some good while you’re here.

 

I pushed that thought aside as we entered the command center; I didn’t have time for it right now. As we made our way to the central command area, I couldn’t help but notice the small, but well-supplied, cantina off of the main path. Not that I minded the occasional drink or even just blowing off some steam at an on-base watering hole, but it seemed like a damned strange thing to insist on having in the middle of a Resistance base. Of course, I’d never been part of an underground movement, so I might well have been missing something. I did appreciate being able to look around the base - it made for a good distraction from looking ahead at Elara’s – Maker save me.

 

We passed through the rest of the base in subdued silence, trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves. Most of the base’s personnel seemed to be native Balmorrans, who gave us the same dirty looks we’d gotten outside. It was with a real sense of relief that we found the central hub of the center. To our left was an office area that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Republic base – I guessed that the bearded man behind the largest desk was Commander Madine. I motioned for the squad to head in his direction – better to get the easy introduction over with first. Maybe he can give us some tips for winning over the Balmorrans, too.

 

The commander barely glanced up when we first presented ourselves, but returned our salutes quickly enough. He looked tired, which made sense given all that they’d been going through over the past few weeks and months. There was a strange tension in the lines on his forehead, though, like he had something entirely else on his mind, something beyond managing a guerilla war against a much stronger occupying force.”

 

“Commander, Havoc Squad reporting in.” I removed my helmet and grinned sheepishly. “Captain Ayrs Martell in command.”

 

“Yes, General Garza informed me that you would be arriving.” His eyes narrowed in what would have passed for an excellent impersonation of the reaction the Balmorrans had to us. “She also mentioned that you were tasked with removing one of our best men from the field and that you and your squad would not be available to assist with any of our operations against the Imperials and their collaborators.” He practically spat out his last sentence. “I believe that sums up Havoc Squad’s appearance here on Balmorra, doesn’t it?”

 

“Just about, sir.” I grimaced – if even the local Republic commander was being this pissy about us being here, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing what the Balmorrans would say. “Although I’ve been granted a certain amount of flexibility with my assignment and might be able to assist you and your forces so long as it doesn’t interfere with our mission.”

 

“The Madines have served the Republic for generations, I’m well aware of what that operational flexibility is worth to me, Captain.” I was tempted to remind him of my own family’s history of service, but decided better of it. “In case you are looking for Ardon, he’s across the room – the bald one with the battle scars all over. I’m sure he’ll be quite happy to meet you.”

 

“Yes, sir.” I kept my face as neutral as I could. I could understand why the guy was being an ***, but it didn’t make dealing with him any more tolerable. “I’ll have Forex contact your staff liaison to coordinate our communications, in case you end up having a use for us.”

 

“Of course,” he replied coolly. “Dismissed.”

 

We snapped to attention and then whirled to face the other side of the room. I spotted Ardon quickly enough – there weren’t too many large bald men with the air of authority that he had. And he shot us the angriest glance of the entire group, too. I took lead for this conversation, leaving Elara and Jorgan to flank either side of me. Forex, smartly, realized it would be best for it to stay out of the way, and wandered off to inspect a tactical display.

 

“Commander Ardon, I’m Captain Ayrs Martell, commanding officer of Havoc Squad. I wish we could have met under better circumstances.” I extended my hand out to him, but he did not respond in kind; I let my hand hang there awkwardly for a couple of seconds, then dropped it to my side. “Look, I’m not any happier about this than you are, but orders are orders, and we need Vik for our mission.”

 

“And I need Vik for my mission,” he retorted angrily. “He’s the best damn demolitions and explosives expert we have, and he’s been a huge help to us across multiple fronts over the past few months. Now, you and your Republic want to come in here and take him away for another of your ‘classified’ missions, leaving us short another soldier. Tell me, Captain Martell, is the Republic going to send us additional experts to replace him?”

 

“Not as far as I’m aware,” I said quietly. “I understand where you’re coming from – .”

 

“No, I don’t think you do,” he shot back. “The Republic has gotten soft since the war. None of you know what it’s like to wake up every morning with the threat of Imperial strikes and random colicoid attacks. General Garza’s so caught up in her schemes and secret missions that she’s forgotten what a real soldier’s work is like.” I kept silent and let him vent – nothing I said was going to change the way he felt, anyway. “You probably mean well, Captain, but if you could only see outside your own little box, you’d see you’re only hurting those who need the help.”

 

“I wish I could help, Commander. Really, I do understand what you all are going through here.” I frowned and tried to find the words to end the conversation without escalating things. “But Havoc Squad can’t be everywhere at once, and there’s some nasty stuff coming our way from the Empire that we have to take care of. If I could get you the help you need, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Right now, I can only do what they put in front of me.”

 

“You could do a lot more if you wanted to. Many of us already have.” His lips twisted contemptuously. “But you enjoy being a part of the most famous squad in the Republic. You’re proud of that insignia on your armor. A real soldier would know that we fight for people, not our own egos.”

 

From behind me came the low rumble of Jorgan growling menacingly.

 

“You’re wrong about me, and you’re wrong about the Republic.” I spat the words out through clenched teeth, doing my damnedest not to say anything that would get me written up. “We don’t have to be friends, and I don’t expect you to give a damn about whether I find Vik or not, but I do expect that people show my squad the proper respect they deserve for the **** they’ve done for the Republic.” I took a deep breath to settle down a bit. “Now, can you tell me where Vik is, or are we going to have to waste even more time with this pointless dick-measuring contest?”

 

Ardon looked like he wanted to slap or strangle me. Or both. But he didn’t say anything.

 

I was getting tired of his ********. “The way I see it, Commander, you’re doing the people you claim to be devoting your life to a disservice by keeping both of us off the battlefield. You might not like the battles I’ve been ordered to fight, but you damned well better respect the fight that my squad and I are fighting them.”

 

“I –“ he paused and cleared his throat. “I don’t know where he is. He was assigned to a Resistance force by the Markaran Outpost, but he’s been absent without leave for the past few days. You might check with the locals and see what you can find.” His features darkened again, just as quickly as they’d softened. “I better not hear that you’ve interfered with our operations.”

 

Any kind of response I wanted to give was cut short by the gentle touch of Elara’s hand on my shoulder. She shot me the kind of look that would have looked severe to someone that didn’t know her, but was something entirely different to me. I took another breath and nodded at her. She gave me a small, almost imperceptible, smile. I returned it. Careful. “You won’t. Thanks…and good luck, Commander.”

 

We returned the way we came, pausing briefly at the cantina to get some refreshments and food before heading out. Between the fighting with the Imperials, the effects of years of occupation and whatever the hell the colicoids did, I suspected that finding stuff in the field to eat would be a challenge. As much as every Republic soldier enjoyed their ration packs, I figured we could afford to splurge on a meal. Nobody’ll blame me for wanting to stuff my face with a nerf burger before we go.

 

Whatever problems Ardon had with us were apparently not enough to interfere with the requests Garza had made, which I appreciated. In place of the Thunderclap, which was ill-suited for this sort of work, he’d managed to find us an old Orion-class transport. It was boxy and ungainly but reliable and not the kind of ship to draw unwanted attention. Inside the cargo hold were some grenades and other simple explosives, generally not much to write home about, but invaluable to an organization like the Balmorran Resistance. I made a mental note to ask Garza to repay the favor somehow.

 

I piloted the ship along the route Ardon’s people had programmed and let the rest of the squad take in the sights of Balmorra, such as they were. The planet wasn’t much to look at even in the best of days, being as dominated by industrial development as it was. The years of Imperial occupation had done little to improve the scenery. Grassy areas and farmland that might have been picturesque at one point had been mined, bombed and marched over so that nothing was left but a brown, muddy, mess. There were still a few tufts of vegetation here and there that hinted at the potential for revival, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

 

Markaran Outpost wasn’t much to look at, either – prefab walls, a few temporary shelters masquerading as buildings, and a handful of turrets that wouldn’t have kept out a particularly adventurous group of farmers armed with pitchforks, let alone an Imperial squad. Still, the fact the Resistance had managed to hang onto a fortification this close to Sobrik was a good sign, and the troops there managed to direct us to Vik’s last assignment – a squad assigned to setting up surveillance around a nearby droid factory. It wasn’t much to go off of, but it was a start.

 

Vik’s squad was right where the local commander had said they would be, camped in an innocuous-looking settlement three miles from the factory they were monitoring. I landed the transport a fifteen minute hike away, and had Forex guard the ship while we slipped past a couple of small Imperial patrols to connect with the Resistance group.

 

The first Balmorran we saw was a slim woman whose eyes bugged out as big as dinner plates when she saw us. Instead of challenging us or demanding identification, she let out a pathetic yip and scrambled back toward the center of the encampment. We followed cautiously, weapons lowered so as to not startle anyone or provoke a negative reaction. As was all too typical in these types of situations, the comm frequency Ardon had given us wasn’t working – no doubt the unit was several days behind on refreshing whichever one they were using.

 

We were just outside the center of the complex when we were finally greeted by a half-dozen Balmorrans aiming a variety of weapons at us and wearing angry expressions tinged with a hint of fear. They looked sloppy, even for civilians, and I couldn’t help but feel that they were looking for a reason not to fight. Of course, you’re not looking to fight either, idiot.

 

“Ayrs Martell,” I said firmly as I extended my hand to their leader. “I’m here to ask you about Tanno Vik.”

 

“W-what?” Their commander sounded more like a scared kid than a veteran of a guerilla war. When I looked at him more closely, I realized that was because he was a damned kid. All of them were. “We d-didn’t hear a-anything about any troops being in the area.”

 

“Commander Ardon probably hoped we wouldn’t be here,” I replied wryly. “But we’re not here on his behalf; we’re just here to find Tanno Vik. Ardon mentioned that he was serving with your unit.” I paused and scanned the area – there was a smattering of other Balmorrans, but no Weequay. “He doesn’t seem to be here though. Neither do your most experienced fighters.”

 

“N-no sir. H-he. Vik, I m-mean.”

 

“Calm down, kid. You’re not in trouble, whatever Vik did.” I was beginning to wish I’d challenged Garza more about the guy. “Where’d Vik go? And why did he take the rest of your troops?”

 

“H-he said something about finding a big opportunity to hit the Imperials. Something about striking it rich too, which doesn’t make sense.” The young man scratched the back of his neck nervously. “He l-left a few days ago and headed east. Took the rest of the squad with him. W-we haven’t heard anything from them since.”

 

I frowned and considered the information. I’d expected finding Vik would be more of a hassle than Garza had let on, but tracking him across a warzone was something else entirely. Even if he didn’t get himself killed doing…whatever it was he was doing…it was going to be a real pain in the *** to pull him out of it and get him off-world.

 

“He didn’t say anything else? Not even a hint about where he was going?”

 

“W-well, he did leave a holo.” He turned to one of his companions and motioned toward the command tent. She nodded and ran inside the tent; we heard the sound of her rummaging around for a moment before she returned holding a portable holo-projector. The Resistance commander nodded his thanks and activated the device. “Here you go.”

 

A holographic image of Tanno Vik came to life. He looked like most other Weequays I’d seen, but I knew he was trouble from the very first sound of his voice. “Lieutenant Rival’e, I’m leaving you this message so you know where I’ve taken your men. I’ve been assigned a top secret mission on behalf of the Balmorran resistance. I’d tell you more, but it’s classified under Regulation 235-R…you’ll see everything checks out. Have a good one.”

The hell does that mean?

 

“Um, Sir?” Elara’s voice was tentative over the squad comm channel. “I have thoroughly studied Republic regulations and…”

 

“And?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the rest.

 

“Sir, it’s just that his message makes no sense at all. Regulation 235-R has nothing at all to do with mission classification – it dictates the size and positioning of improvised field latrines.”

 

Why the **** do we have regulations about improvised field latrines?

 

The Balmorran’s face had turned deathly pale. “S-so he isn’t on s-some secret mission?”

 

“No, he isn’t. Maker knows what he’s doing, but I’d be willing to be it isn’t anything good.” If Vik had gone rogue, it meant he was probably up to his usual underhanded ********. “He’ll be going somewhere where he can make a profit off of the chaos around him. What’s east of here?”

 

The woman who had gotten the holo from the tent stepped forward – she was more confident, and secure in what she was saying. “The arms factory, but he wouldn’t have clearance, which he’d have to get from Sobrik. Maybe he was scouting out one of the outlying garrisons to find a way through Sobrik’s defense grid.”

 

“Makes sense.” If only all members of the Balmorran resistance were this useful. “I noticed you guys have another base out there, Gorinth Outpost, I think it was. Can you contact them and see if they’ve had any contact with Vik?”

 

“Definitely, sir. Follow me.” The Balmorran led us into the command tent and activated the communications panel within. After a few seconds of beeping noises, a harsh male voice came in over the channel.

 

“This is Gorinth One. Why are you broadcasting on this channel?”

 

“Gorinth One, this is Markaran Elite,” the Balmorran replied. Her forehead tensed for a moment. “We’re looking to establish contact with Specialist Tanno Vik. He’s a Weequay from our unit, might have passed through two or three days ago.”

 

“Vik? He said that…“ There was a commotion on the other end of the conversation and a lot of shouting. When the voice returned, it sounded like the speaker was being forced to admit to something embarrassing. “He was here. Came by two days ago asking for some weapons and supplies before he took his men further east. He told us he was on a mission.”

 

“Classified under Regulation 235-R, I’m guessing?” I sighed and wished everyone had someone as capable as Elara around for crap like this. “It was all ********.”

 

“That’s our liaison from Commander Ardon.” The Balmorran woman smiled slightly as she interjected. “He’s the one that needs to find Vik.”

 

The man fell silent, though I could hear him breathing heavily into his comm. “I can give you a comm frequency he gave us to stay in contact. He hasn’t been responding to us, but maybe he’ll respond to you.” He paused. “Frequency is Alpha-Tango-Romeo-Beta-Beta-Zero-One-Alpha.”

 

“Copy that. We’ll take it from here.” I disconnected the channel and turned back to the Balmorrans with us. “I’ll try to contact Vik from our ship. We’ll find him.” Somehow. Maker save me.

 

We double-timed It back to the ship. Our trip was made easier by the lack of any Imperials this time around, except for three smoking corpses about halfway between the camp and the transport. I wasn’t sure if Forex had been feeling adventurous or if they’d fallen victim to roving bands of Balmorran militia, but I made a mental note to send a warning to the Balmorran camp to watch out for Imperials looking for their lost comrades.

 

Jorgan made a beeline for the cockpit once we got back, while Elara joined me by the communications panel. I gave her a wan smile, which she responded to with a warm one. The room felt a little warmer and my footing a bit shakier, so I decided to be prompt about inputting Vik’s communications code. Much to my surprise, the connection went through right away.

 

“Vik, is that you?” I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for opening communications with an ******e like Vik, so I glanced at Elara over my shoulder, but she just shrugged helplessly. “You’ve been reinstated in the Republic military and you’re to join my squad.”

 

“Hey there, you must be the Republic officer that my friends in the Resistance said was coming. Good to finally talk to you.” Vik’s voice was disturbingly light and cheery, like he’d actually been looking forward to talking to me. “I’ve got a top secret mission that I could use your squad’s help with.”

 

Elara replied for me, her voice as sarcastic as I’d ever heard it. “Does it involve field latrines?”

 

“Ha! I was wondering if anyone would catch on to that bit. No, nothing to do with latrines, but I did locate a major shipment of prototype weapons that I’d like to deliver to a contact in the Resistance. If you could help me out, well, so much the better for everyone involved.”

 

It sounded too good to be true, which from my experience meant it was going to be something entirely too good to be true. “If you were looking to get weapons for the Resistance, why didn’t you just run your op by Commander Ardon or someone else? Why do it under the table?”

 

“Commander Ardon is a conservative commander who fights like he’s still in the Republic army. The people of Balmorra need a more unorthodox thinker that is willing to do things differently to get results.”

 

It almost sounded like he believed his own ********. “Uh huh. So what’s this operation you need help with and what did you want my squad to do?”

 

“We’re doing a simultaneous strike on a security station and a data center in Sobrik; my force is hitting the security grid so it goes down just in time for my men in Sobrik to get in, grab the security clearances we need, and get out. We could use your muscle in Sobrik, could even arrange your cover story so you get easy access. Yu do this for me, and I’ll come with you and do whatever your commanding officer wants.”

 

I looked at Elara again but, like last time, she shrugged. Garza hadn’t given us any intel on a priority target like weapons prototypes, and I was loath to trust Tanno Vik’s word in the absence of any other information. On the other hand, if it got Vik into Havoc and some weapons made it to the Resistance, it might well be worth the risk of having it blow up in our face. It’s not like Vik’s going to come of his own accord anyway.

 

“Fine. But I don’t want to find out you’re playing any games with me, Vik, or I will make sure there’ll be hell to pay for it.” I had the distinct impression I was being taken, but I didn’t see any other obvious options. “Send over your op plan and the coordinates in Sobrik, and we’ll connect after we’ve finished.”

 

“That’s what I like to hear!” Again with the sense of excitement in his voice; I couldn’t get a read on the guy to save my life. “After you’re done in Sobrik, we’ll meet at my safe house southwest of the Balmorran Arms Factory. I’m sending you the coordinates now.”

 

“Great, that’s really great.” I wondered if he realized how sarcastic I was being, but figured he probably did and just didn’t care.

 

“Looking forward to meeting you, boss.” With that, Vik terminated the connection.

 

Elara turned to face me. “I don’t like it, Sir. Specialist Vik is exactly the sort of person who would use this situation for his own benefit. I fear that we are being played before we even know what game is being played.”

 

I frowned. “You don’t have to convince me. He wouldn’t have gone off-grid simply to be unorthodox. I’m not looking forward to finding out what he’s got planned.”

 

“Whatever it is, we’ll face It together,” she replied softly. Before I could think of something appropriately charming to say, she slipped her hand around mine and squeezed gently as she leaned forward and gave me a gently kiss on my cheek. “I’ll wait for you and Sergeant Jorgan in the briefing room.”

 

I was still sitting there, stupid and silent, as she slipped out of the room.

 

Shaking my head, I slapped the intercom button and buzzed Jorgan in the cockpit. “Change of plans, Jorgan. Meet Elara and me in the briefing room in five.” I paused and sighed heavily. "Looks like we're going to have some fun in Sobrik.”

Edited September 1, 2015 by Lesaberisa

It kills me to see a Trooper who doesn't adore Forex. I mean, what's not to love? Apart from him being completely crazy.

 

Jorgan is a treasure, as always.

I love getting the email that this thread has been updated......always makes my day a little better. Awwww, I love Ayrs with Elara and eagerly await more, but boy is it going to get interesting when Jorgan finds out.

 

I remember the first time I went through Balmorra with a Trooper and got to that conversation about Vik's secret mission......I had Jorgan out and hurried to escape out because I just knew Elara would likely have a comment about what that mission code was. Of course she delivered........and I cracked up when she informed us it was for field latrine placement. I loved that you included that and expanded on it during Ayrs' later conversation with Vik.

 

As always, I'm eager for the next part!!

I'm going to respond to comments when I get home.

 

EDIT: here they are!

 

 

 

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Elara took up a position slightly behind me and to my right as I entered the briefing room and activated the holo-display. Jorgan and Forex took up positions opposite us, on the other side of the console. Nobody looked too happy, except maybe the droid. Damned thing was always happy as long as there was anti-Imperial violence afoot; this looked to be a prime opportunity for it. Karking thing. No wonder politicians love using war droids when they can – program them to do as much terrible **** as you can, but you still keep your hands clean.

 

Sobrik was the capital of Balmorra, though its importance had diminished considerably during the occupation. Technically, all administrative and governmental activities were still running out of its central district, but the onset of the Balmorran Resistance had changed that – the further you got from Imperial control, the less anyone gave a damn what the bureaucrats in Sobrik were doing. Not that they should, of course – the politicians left in the capital were a bunch of traitorous *******es who would have to answer to the people they had betrayed soon enough...

 

Focus, you idiot.

 

I shook my head, ignoring Jorgan’s curious look, and punched up a display of the city.

 

“Specialist Vik has…requested…our support with a Resistance operation in Sobrik. I’ve agreed to provide that assistance in exchange for his agreement to resign from the Resistance and accept his assignment with Havoc Squad.” I put a hand up to stifle Jorgan’s retort. “I’m not any happier than the rest of you, but it’ll also give us a chance to do something for the Balmorrans before we leave. Maker knows they can use all the help they can get.”

 

The Cather still didn’t look very happy, but as far as I could remember he was never happy.

 

“Vik’s people managed to get ahold of intelligence regarding a large shipment of prototype weapons being sent off-world by the Imperials, presumably to make sure they don’t fall into Resistance – or Republic – hands. We have good reason to suspect that shipment will be sent out of the Balmorran Arms Factory, located to the east of Sobrik, but we won’t know where to hit them without more specific intelligence.” I punched up the code that Vik had transmitted to us and was pleasantly surprised when a location within Sobrik’s central district lit up. At least Vik is reliable about some.. “Thanks to Specialist Vik, we know where to get that information.”

 

“Sir, if I may?” Jorgan seemed unusually hesitant to speak his mind, which meant he really meant whatever it was he had to say. I nodded for him to continue. “Vik is expecting us to launch an op on short notice without proper reconnaissance and in hostile territory. I know we’re Havoc Squad, but this doesn’t sit right with me.”

 

Me neither. But I can’t be that blunt.

 

“These aren’t ideal circumstances for an op, but I don’t think we have much of a choice. General Garza spent a lot of time and effort before picking Vik for the squad, so she doesn’t want us to come back without him. This op will get him on board faster, and we’ll get to mess with the Imperials a bit.” I jabbed a finger at the display. “El-Lieutenant Dorne forwarded the intelligence to Commander Madine back at Bugtown to verify the information. We won’t move on it until we’ve gotten that intel confirmed.” I sighed heavily. “In the meantime, Lieutenant Dorne will put together a mission plan and you'll get us back to Bugtown. I need to speak with General Garza, and then I want everyone to get some sleep.”

 

Forex shuffled its legs.

 

“Well, you can power down or recharge or whatever the hell you do, Forex.” I didn’t much care what it did as long as it didn’t make any noise. "Any questions?"

 

Nobody said anything, which was fine by me. Elara returned to the med bay, data pad in hand, while Jorgan and Forex headed toward the cockpit. I gave everyone a once over and departed in the opposite direction, back toward my cabin. I had half a mind to sneak into the med bay, but Elara had enough to do without my antics. Plus, Jorgan or Forex would notice. I sighed and shut the cabin door behind me.

 

It occurred to me that I had no idea whether Garza would even be in her office when I contacted her, but I figured I could leave a message for her. Plus, I’d already punched in her code into my communications panel, so it was too late to reconsider. Fortunately, her somewhat-annoyed face appeared on my screen after only a few moments, so l launched right into things.

 

“General, it’s Captain Martell. I was hoping to speak with you regarding Specialist Vik. Sir.” I straightened my collar slightly and tried not to slouch.

 

Garza hadn’t looked all that pleased to begin with, and her face darkened even more once I’d spoken. “Speak with me about Specialist Vik again, you mean? I believe we’ve already had this conversation, Captain.” She pursed her lips.

 

“We have had this conversation before, sir.” I sifted through various arguments, trying to find the one she would listen to. “But we finally made contact with him on Balmorra....after speaking with him, I wanted to formally request that you reconsider his assignment to Havoc Squad. He is a terrible fit for this unit, and I don’t want to put my people’s lives in danger having a loose cannon like him around.”

 

“Captain, I appreciate your concerns, truly.” A vein in her forehead pulsed slightly, but disappeared just as quickly. “You may have to monitor him closely, but Specialist Vik is also the most talented demolitions and explosives expert in the Republic who is also available for reassignment. You can’t expect me to tear other units apart because you’re worried you might have to do a little extra work to keep Vik in line.”

 

“You tore Colonel Gaff’s unit apart when you transferred Lieutenant Dorne to Havoc Squad,” I pointed out, though I regretted my words immediately when I saw her expression. I recovered quickly. “Though I understand the circumstances were different, of course, and I've always appreciated your efforts to get her on board." Garza rolled her eyes. "That being said, I am convinced that Vik will undermine Havoc Squad’s ability to complete its missions and prepare for whatever’s coming with the Empire.”

 

“The restarting of the war, you mean.” Garza smiled bitterly. “You don’t need to mince words around me, Captain, we’re both fully aware of the inevitable.” Her eyes narrowed as she continued. “Tell me, why are you so convinced that Vik presents such a threat to your squad’s abilities to function in the field? Is it his attitude? His disciplinary record?”

 

“He’s not a soldier, sir, he's a mercenary. He doesn’t fight for anyone or anything except himself. We thought he was here helping the Resistance, but he's not…” My voice trailed off, since I realized we didn't know what vik was doing,, exactly. “He’s off running rogue operations without even bothering to tell anyone what he’s doing. Hell, I don’t think he’s telling his own men what he’s doing. Sir.”

 

“I admit that that information troubles me, Captain, but I’m afraid there is not much I can do to act upon it.”

 

“Might I know what, sir?” I suspected I already knew the answer, but any information would be nice.

 

“The SIS has obtained additional intelligence regarding the Gauntlet superweapon. Even based on conservative estimates, it will be field-capable within a matter of weeks and fully operational shortly thereafter.” She paused and pushed a few buttons on her console; the image was distorted for a few moments and then readjusted. Extra security. “The SIS was also able to determine its purpose – the Gauntlet is designed to fire on and destroy ships traveling through hyperspace. Those ships are defenseless against such attacks, and even a small number of these weapons being brought into Imperial service would dramatically affect the strategic picture between the Empire and Republic.”

 

I shivered as I felt something cold and unpleasant run up and down my spine. “Can we stop it in time, sir?”

 

“That is why we need Havoc Squad at full strength as soon as possible, Captain.” She gave me a stern look. “Even if it requires sacrifices, like not helping the Balmorrans. Even if it means being flexible with our recruiting targets." Garza sighed. " We simply do not have the luxury of selecting only soldiers with spotless records for the empty spots in Havoc’s roster. Insubordination will simply have to be dealt with.”

 

“Begging your pardon, sir, but what Vik is up to is well beyond insubordination. He’s willfully misappropriating Resistance and Republic resources to engage in unapproved and unknown activities. If we were officially at war, he’d be lucky to escape with only a court martial.”

 

Garza smiled tightly. “It almost sounds like Lieutenant Dorne is rubbing off on you.”

 

“What?” My voice was a little louder than I meant for it to be. More defensive, too, probably. “Uh, I just think Vik’s going to prevent us from getting the job done right. I don’t mind ‘insubordination’ when it comes from someone like Sergeant Jorgan, because he only mouths off when it’s for the good of the mission and the squad. Vik isn’t like that.”

 

“I believe I know something about subordinates mouthing off, thank you.” Garza’s voice was a strange mix of annoyance and amusement. “That said, I believe I’ve made my position clear. Were there any other matters you wished to discuss, Captain Martell?”

 

“Actually, one other thing, sir.” I’d forgotten about it for weeks, since before we’d even gotten to Coruscant. “I’d requested that Havoc Squad get a pilot assigned to it, both for combat and general duties. If you recall, I’d suggested a pilot on board the transport that brought Sergeant Jorgan and me to Coruscant.”

 

“Yes, I do remember - a Flight Officer Stavros Malia, if I recall correctly.” I wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that she remembered exactly who I was talking about so quickly. “Unfortunately, I was unable to fulfill that request - Flight Officer Malia was reassigned as part of a larger-scale reallocation of personnel.”

 

What the hell does that even mean?

 

“I see, sir.” I licked my lips, which had dried out during the conversation. “Is there any chance we could have another pilot assigned to the squad? It would greatly benefit unit efficiency and lessen the load on myself and Sergeant Jorgan.”

 

“I will see what I can do, Captain, but resources are tighter than you would think – as long as Havoc’s performance is not negatively affected, it will be difficult to argue that a pilot is a necessity. Especially given the piloting capabilities of your droid.”

 

“Forex is needed on our ops, sir. I can’t afford to leave it behind in case we need a quick pick up.”

 

“Not Forex, your protocol droid.” Garza gave me the kind of look Mom used to send my way when I’d done something particularly dumb. “Were you not aware that the C2-N2 unit had piloting capabilities? Not an ideal solution, perhaps, but functional.”

 

“That would work.” I swallowed hard. “Sir.”

 

“Is that it, Captain?”

 

“Yes, sir.” For now. After we take care of the Gauntlet, you can be sure I’m bringing Vik up again. I’ll be damned if I have an ******e like him in my squad if I can help it. “Thank you for your time.”

 

“Of course.” She gave me a sharp look and closed the channel.

 

I leaned back in my chair and exhaled loudly. I hadn’t really expected Garza to change her mind, but she’d sounded more dead set on keeping Vik in the squad than I’d hoped. I didn’t quite understand why it was so damned hard to find another explosives effort in a galaxy of trillions and trillions of beings, but apparently asking to have only people that belonged in Havoc added to our roster was too much to ask.

 

Of course, if someone was asked about you back on Ord Mantell, they might have thought you didn’t belong, too. Hell, not like you thought you even deserved to be at the special training so early in your career.

 

I was relieved when Jorgan reported that we’d arrived back at Bugtown, and even happier to discover that Madine had set aside bunks for each of us. After his testiness earlier in the day, I’d figured he wouldn’t go out of his way to help, but he’d even moved several of his own people to the other side of the barracks to give us more room. I made a mental note to make it up to him, somehow.

 

When I woke up the next morning, I felt more refreshed than I had in a while; the same seemed to be true for the rest of the squad, too. Elara’s smile was looking particularly radiant, and Jorgan almost smiled at breakfast when Forex made one of its usual comments about driving the evil Imperials off the face of Balmorra with the assistance of the brave, freedom-loving, Balmorran Resistance. Even Madine seemed almost not-entirely-unfriendly as we filed into his office to discuss the intelligence we’d gotten from Vik. It was like I’d woken up in some sort of bizarre world or something.

 

“We looked over the information you got from Vik, it looks solid.” Madine unfurled a paper map of Sobrik, with several locations highlighted around the building that Vik had indicated held the information we needed. “The Imperials have garrisoned Sobrik with a moderately strong garrison – large enough to impress the locals, but not so large that it impacts their operational flexibility in the field. These locations around your target area have the highest concentrations of Imperial troops.”

 

I scratched the back of my neck as I peered more closely at the map. “Even if there aren’t that many troops, we really can’t afford to start a firefight in Sobrik. Beyond the obvious issue of getting out without taking unnecessary casualties, we’d be putting civilians at risk just to help Vik out with his scheme."

 

“Which is also how you’re going to get him into your squad,” Madine said pointedly. He might have been acting friendlier, but apparently he was still perfectly happy to needle me. “As it happens, I believe the Resistance is in a position to assist you. Commander Ardon has even expressed his approval for doing so, despite your refusal to reciprocate the gesture.”

 

“Now, you wait a minute.” My cheeks flushed slightly and my face felt a bit hot. “We –“

 

“We would be more than happy to accept whatever aid Commander Ardon and the Resistance can offer.” Elara’s voice was as smooth as ever, and seemed to lower the temperature in the room a bit. “How do their plans fit with our mission objectives?”

 

Something came over the older man – his eyes were gleaming with an excitement that was almost feral. “We’ve been looking to hit Sobrik for some time. With some of the aid the Republic has provided and the assistance of certain…unofficial…partners, the Resistance is prepared to make a more significant move against the city.”

 

“Even if the city is lightly garrisoned for an important target, you don’t have the numbers for a full-scale assault,” I objected. “The Imperials will have reinforcements all over you within hours. And that’s assuming you even get the defense shield down.”

 

Madine smiled tightly. “We’ve got that part handled. And we won’t be going in with guns blazing, trust me.” He pointed at the map. “I believe our assault on Sobrik will do more than enough to help you infiltrate the complex that Vik is interested in – with all their resources focused on us, the Imperials won’t have anything to throw at you.”

 

I leaned forward. “Maybe so. But what if they push you back right in the middle of our op, or what if your attack gets stopped, and we get nailed because of it?”

 

“That won’t happen.” I didn’t like the swaggering confidence – it reminded me too much of the way villains in the holos always acted before their plans got blown up in their faces. “We’ve got a series of coordinated strikes across the area that will ensure the Imperials don’t threaten you.”

 

I glanced over at Jorgan, who was shaking his head in disbelief. As far as I knew, the Resistance wasn’t capable of this kind of operation, yet here Madine was insisting that they were launching a coordinated assault on multiple targets, and were capable of doing so during a precise enough time window that we could complete our mission. “This sounds a lot like the op that got Grand Marshal Cheketta and Tempest Squad killed. I’m pretty sure I read a lot of optimistic reports before it went south.”

 

“The grand marshal’s plan was sound, it was that damned Sith that stopped him. She’s not here to stop us this time.”

 

“Plenty of other Imperials are, though,” I replied coolly. “No offense, Commander, but I’m not seeing a viable plan here; I'm just hearing a lot of unrealistic wishful thinking.”

 

The man smiled again. “General Garza thought you might say that. Suffice to say that we have arranged for an appropriate level of coordination between our forces to ensure things proceed as planned. She remembers Cheketta and Tempest Squad as well as you.”

 

I wasn’t surprised that Garza had gone behind my back – it was her call, not mine, after all. I was surprised at her decision, though, since she’d never struck me as an overly sentimental type. Everyone in the Republic had been shocked and dismayed by the broadcasts of the deaths of the grand marshal and the Special Forces soldiers we’d sent to Balmorra. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Garza had been affected too…but throwing more forces at the Imperials to get revenge didn’t sound like Garza at all.

 

Maybe she’s playing some other kind of game…

 

“So you spoke to General Garza? Guess you saved me the trouble of doing that myself.” I smiled weakly. “Can I at least get a rough outline of your schedule so I can match up our mission plan accordingly?”

 

“Of course. I’ll have the information sent to you immediately.”

 

I nodded in thanks and stood up; the rest of the squad followed suit, as did Madine. We shook hands, and then I turned and led my people out of the commander’s office and back toward the hangar our ship had been hidden in. Once we were on board, I motioned for Jorgan and Elara to follow me into my cabin.

 

“I don’t like this, sir.” Jorgan said flatly, starting the conversation before I could.

 

“I must agree, sir.” Elara said, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “From the way Commander Madine described the operation, it sounds like something well beyond the resources that our intelligence reports suggested the Resistance has.”

 

Something clicked.

 

“General Garza obviously contacted Commander Madine regarding our interest in Vik prior to our arrival; they must have spoken about the Resistance’s plan, too.” Neither of them objected, so I continued. “I was thinking back to something she said to me last night, about how we all know there’s another war with the Empire coming – maybe this is the first battle of that war. She doesn’t want to risk this squad on Balmorra, but if she can succeed where Cheketta failed…”

 

“If the attack fails, she runs the same risk of being exposed, though," Jorgan objected. "Something doesn’t add up.”

 

“Depends on if she has herself covered – Grand Marshal Cheketta was a military man through and through and wouldn't be underhanded even if it made sense. General Garza’s a bit craftier than that, though.” I chewed on my lip as Elara accessed the console to pull up Madine’s information. “Either way, I don’t like being a part of Vik’s game and I definitely don’t like being a part of Garza's either. Especially with so much at stake – we don’t have time for this kind of ********.”

 

The Cathar shrugged helplessly. “Don’t see what we can do, if Garza’s dead set on us getting Vik.”

 

“I don’t see any options either. Doesn’t mean I’m not frustrated by it.” I smiled grimly and turned to my XO. “How does Madine’s info look, Elara?”

 

“It –“ Elara paused as we both processed what I’d said. I tried not to look at Jorgan. “The information supports Commander Madine’s claim that the assault is significantly better planned than previous Republic efforts to reclaim the planet, sir.” Her eyes nervously traced my face before they met mine; I blinked first. “In addition to the aforementioned Republic support, there are numerous irregular units scheduled to take part.”

 

“Irregular units? Civilians, you mean?”

 

Elara’s brow furrowed with concentration. “I don’t believe so, sir. They appear to be non-Balmorran forces, but do not appear to be part of the Republic force detailed for the operation.”

 

“Hmm.” I wondered what kind of ‘irregular’ assistance the Balmorrans could possibly have arranged. “Anything else of interest?”

 

“It appears the Balmorran government-in-exile is taking part as well,” she replied. “Apparently, they’re working with a Jedi.”

 

“So the Jedi are involved too? I thought this was supposed to be a secret operation. Don’t see how it can be if everyone in the Republic is taking part.” I sighed. “What’s their timeline like? I’d rather not be holed up here for too long.”

 

“The attack is scheduled for three days from now, sir. Fairly short notice.” Elara blinked slowly and handed a data pad to Jorgan. “However, our mission plan is fairly straightforward and will not require too much adjustment.” She gave me a pad as well, which outlined the timeline for the Balmorrans’ operation, as well as a copy of the mission plan she'd drawn up.

 

I reviewed the information, but there wasn’t much that stood out and Elara’s plan had already accounted for most of it. I hated to admit it, but having a major offensive launched at the same time as our smash and grab was going to be a lot of help. Maybe the Balmorrans learned something during their years of fighting the Empire.

 

“Given our limited forewarning, I would encourage the squad to get the proper amount of rest to ensure optimal performance in the field. I don’t believe it would be a good idea to get caught up in any Resistance activities.” Elara gave me a slightly harder look than usual.

 

So you don’t want me to be a hero and risk the mission we’re actually here for. I get it.

 

“That makes sense. We’ll bunker down in the barracks for the next two days.” I smiled slightly. “Hopefully we don’t get into too much trouble cooped up here on the base.”

 

Elara smiled slightly at that, but I couldn’t help but notice Jorgan’s suspicious look from earlier returning. I didn’t have much time to worry about that, though, not with last minute preparations to worry about. [i}And Garza playing her games.[/i] I didn’t expect her to include me in her decision-making process, but I didn’t like her using Havoc Squad as a pawn any more than I liked it when Vik did it. I didn’t like games, in general.

 

Except Revan: Knight of the Republic, of course.

 

I sighed again, and sat back down to review Elara’s mission plan. I’d hoped it would keep me busy for a while, but she’d been as thorough as I would have expected, which left me with the same two days of boredom as the rest of the squad.

 

The next two days passed slowly, painfully so. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in a place like Bugtown – the Balmorrans were still keeping their suspicious distance from us, and most of the Republic personnel had been transferred elsewhere, presumably to get ready for the assault on Sobrik. It was strange having nothing to do whn everyone else was doing so much. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the free time, but I felt damned useless sitting on my hands, especially knowing how many of the people around us weren’t going to be coming back.

 

Nothing made me happier than waking up on that third morning, knowing we would be going into action…and hoping as all hell that whatever Madine and the Balmorrans had planned came off the way they planned. Elara and Jorgan looked about as eager as I felt – it was funny how restless you could get with a couple of days off when you were in the middle of a warzone and not somewhere safely bunked away on Coruscant.

 

We went straight from the barracks to the Thunderclap. There wasn’t any point in wasting Madine’s time when we both had ops to run. Jorgan took the helm and piloted us to a secure site just northwest of Sobrik that the Resistance had set up. We hid out there for three hours, until we got notice that the Resistance was making its move.

 

The shield went down first, and quickly, just as Madine had said it would. Once it did, we had a perfect view of Resistance artillery and air support tangling with their Imperial counterparts; the Balmorrans had numbers…and the desire to win the battle, not just survive it like the Imperials.

 

Once the big guns in the city stopped firing, it was time to move out. Jorgan took us back into the air and piloted the ship through the flak put up by the remaining defenses, setting us down on the roof of a government building next door to the archives we were hitting. From the look of things, the Balmorrans were putting up a terrific fight – the few Imperials I could see on the streets were running frantically one way or another…and all were moving away from our target.

 

Best to get a move on. That could change in a hurry.

 

We hustled off the roof and down the stairwell, while Forex used the repulsors in its legs to hover its way down to street level, meeting us in the alley between the two buildings. There were only a pair of guards stationed outside the side entrance of the archives, both of whom seemed more interested in the security display on their console than the four of us approaching them. A pair of blaster bolts took care of them, and a quick hack of their system opened the door.

 

An Imperial officer and three more guards were waiting for us inside, their blasters at the ready. Jorgan blasted the officer square in the stomach, sending her blaster flying in one direction and her dying body in another. Forex took out one of the guards with a precision shot to the face, and I took care of the remaining pair, winging one with a lucky shot from range and finishing off the other as he scrambled for cover. So far, so good. No alarms, no complications. I could hear the reverberations from more explosions outside, and hoped the right things were blowing up.

 

Forex led the way through the twisting corridors, toward the lower level where all the useful information was. I could see people hiding in their offices, but we ignored them – even if we’d had more time, they were mostly civilians. Maybe they were traitors who deserved to be punished, maybe they were just regular people just looking to keep their job so they could feed their families even as their world went to hell. Wasn’t my place to judge – there would be plenty of time for the Balmorrans to do that once they’d retaken their world.

 

The archives themselves were almost entirely deserted; there were two scared-sounding civilians who’d locked themselves into a storage room, and not a single soul in the main archive room. Things were almost going too well for my liking – I couldn’t remember a time when a mission had actually gone according to plan, and most of the examples of it happening that were included the manuals were because something always went to hell soon after.

 

I punched up the codes that Vik had provided us with and pulled up the information on the prototypes he’d mentioned. They looked pretty interesting; a couple of the heavy rifles were superior in almost every way to their Republic counterparts. We’d been lucky that Vik’s people had sliced the records and discovered that they were being shipped off-world, or else we’d have gotten a hell of a surprise when we went up against them once things flared up again. Getting passed the security system to identify the precise shipment identification took a bit more effort, but I managed it without too much trouble.

 

Once I’d finished, I turned back and rejoined the rest of the squad and found that nothing had happened in my absence – no unexpected visits from civilians, no Imperial patrols scrambling to intercept us, not even the slightest hint that anyone even knew we were down here, let alone why. The trip back to the Thunderclap was much the same, save for the loud explosions coming from the spaceport as well as the city outskirts to the south.

 

Ourview of the government district of Sobrik from the ship’s cockpit revealed something like a ghost town. I figured it was probably for the best – the civilians were holed up where they would be safer, and that the Imperials were too busy dealing with everything the Resistance was throwing at them. And dying, hopefully.

 

“Sir, look.” Elara leaned over and pointed at a tall building about a half-mile north east of us. There were people scrambling around the roof, raising a flag whose design I did not recognize. Once they’d finished a second, smaller, ensign was raised.

 

“I’ll be damned,” I said with a boyish grin. “I never thought I’d be able to see the Republic’s flag rising over Balmorra again.”

 

The good feeling stayed with us all the way to Vik’s camp by the Arms Factory. The first hint of trouble was the lack of a response on the comm channel; the second was the dark plume of smoke climbing over the thin range of hills between us and what passed for his base. I wondered if it was some sort of karmic payback for how easy the job in Sobrik had been.

 

Maker save us if Vik’s dead.

 

“Jorgan, take us straight in. Dorne, Forex, you’re with me.” I didn’t wait for the acknowledgements, I just went straight to the landing ramp and prepared myself – Elara and Forex joined me within moments, just as I’d known they would. “Our primary objective…” I paused and considered carefully. “Our primary objective is to identify the location and status of Specialist Vik. Our secondary objective is to locate and assist any survivors.”

 

I leapt from the ship the moment I could safely do so, cushioning the landing by going into a roll that ended with me in cover behind some burning supplies. I peered out from behind the crates, but didn’t see anything untoward. There was only one, very faint, life sign on my scanners, and it was fading fast. Too fast. I hoofed it across the courtyard, which was strewn with bodies…most of them Balmorran.

 

We found the survivor inside – a young man with too many of his insides no longer inside him. Not a man, a damned kid. Karking Imperials. I went to a knee next to him and removed my helmet as I gripped his hand in mine. “Hang in there, kid. I’ve got the Republic’s best medic with me. She’ll patch you up as good as new.”

 

“D-don’t th-think so.” He managed a weak smile. “Imps. Imps got me.”

 

“Nah, Elara’ll fix you up. Trust me.” I scanned his wounds as best I could, and knew that I was lying. Maybe distracting him will be better. “What happened? Where’s Vik?”

 

“Imps sur-surprised us.” He groaned loudly as Elara knelt beside him and began applying some of her meds. “Th-they got him. Got Vik.” He cried out even louder as she injected something goopy into him. “Took him to the factory. Ahhhhh.”

 

I grit my teeth and gave Elara a look. She met my gaze and shook her head sadly.

 

“Don’t worry about it, kid. You did the best you could.” I patted him on the shoulder and nodded at her as I stood up, then walked back outside to get some fresh air. The smoke was getting in my eyes and irritating them. When I was far enough away to not hear the Balmorran any more, I buzzed Jorgan in the cockpit.

 

“Sir? What’d you find?”

 

“Lots of dead friendlies. Imperials got the jump on them. They grabbed Vik and took him to the arms factory.” I winced as I surveyed the scene. Looks like they killed just about everyone else.”

 

Jorgan growled his response. “Damn.”

 

“We’ll head to the local Resistance outpost and take stock. We need to figure out if we can pull Vik out, but we don’t have any operational plans to use.” I paused. “And we need to make the *********** pay for this.”

 

“Damn straight, sir.”

 

I heard Elara walk up behind me and turned to face her. She offered a sad smile as she finished repacking her medical kit. “I’m sorry, Sir, but there was nothing I could do for him. I hope I was able to make him as comfortable as he could be.”

 

“I'm sure you did, Elara."

 

I took one last look at what was left of Vik’s hideout and then headed for the ship.

 

I tried not to think too much about how much the place looked like our house back on Ithaca, or how the bodies lying around the building would have been my friends and family.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Lesaberisa

Lesa, I love your troopers! As a military brat, with children who are currently serving, I think you have the military mindset spot on! I almost always read Ayrs in my youngest son's voice, who served as a Marine and is now in the Texas Air Guard while he's in school. Love this story, through and through.

I like how you included the other Republic stories to make this endeavour sound not as suicidal as it does ingame.

I think the first meeting of Jorgan and Vik is what I am looking forward to most right now.

Replying since it'll be a few days/weeks/months until I get my next update in with my slow speed...

 

Lesa, I love your troopers! As a military brat, with children who are currently serving, I think you have the military mindset spot on! I almost always read Ayrs in my youngest son's voice, who served as a Marine and is now in the Texas Air Guard while he's in school. Love this story, through and through.

 

I really appreciate hearing that - that actually means a lot to me since I really wanted Ayrs to be grounded/realistic (especially compared to Veresia, who gets the cool Force powers and crazy story). Hope your son is doing well

 

I like how you included the other Republic stories to make this endeavour sound not as suicidal as it does ingame.

I think the first meeting of Jorgan and Vik is what I am looking forward to most right now.

 

I agree about the first point . It happens a lot too, you just don't notice because you're leveling/enjoying the experience - the missions have you/companion/squad go running off into really dangerous areas without backup or without any kind of real plan - the mission just says "go to [place] and do whatever" even if that would get you killed realistically.

 

In this case, you go into Sobrik on your own (with one companion in game or I guess the full squad "in reality"), which is completely stupid - 2-4 people waltzing into the capital city to infiltrate a building? I figured they could at least combine that mission with the overall planetary arc to explain why the squad doesn't get wiped out. Also, it gave me a way to include Garza doing ... something.... behind the scenes -whether she had to in order to get the Resistance to help or actually wanted to help the Balmorrans, we'll have to see!

 

And yes, I'm going to have some/a lot of fun when Ayrs/Elara/Jorgan meet Vik (it's one of the few DS options I always take on every trooper).

Edited September 24, 2015 by Lesaberisa

Jorgan set the ship down in a camouflaged hangar at the nearby Resistance base. The local fighters were busy celebrating the victory in Sobrik, drinking and partying as if they’d already won the damn war. I couldn’t really blame them – a big part of their home was now free – but the joy melted to ash in my mouth every time I remembered the way the Imps had left the bodies back at Vik’s camp. Bastards claim to be soldiers but can’t even treat the dead with respect.

 

I’d forwarded what information we had back to Commander Madine, who’d promised to run our mission profile past the Resistance so we wouldn’t find ourselves up **** creek without a paddle once we’d gotten into the factory. We needed that intelligence, but with it came the inevitable delay caused by the back and forth between everyone involved, and we didn’t have time to waste. Every minute we spent sitting around and waiting was another minute the Imperials had to torture Vik, assuming he was still alive.

 

The rest of the squad was just as restless as I was – Jorgan was wandering around with his jaw set as firmly as it’d been since Ord Mantell, Forex kept prattling on about showing the Imperials the righteous fist of Republic justice, and Elara…

 

Elara had a determined expression about her that I’d never seen from her before and almost reminded me of Jorgan. It reminded me that while she was a damn fine soldier, she was a healer first and foremost, and what the Imperials had done to Vik’s men was basically the antithesis of everything that Elara believed in. And the very reason she defected in the first place. I knew that she’d be ready to go when it was time to head out, but I wished like all hell that I could do something to help her, to show I was there to support her.

 

Too bad you can’t do **** with everyone else around.

 

The best I could do was ensure that the squad was ready to go when called upon – ammo and supplies fully restocked, maps and navigational materials ready to go and local contacts properly set up. We’d only have one shot at the mission; we couldn’t afford to waste it.

 

Fortunately, our wait ended up being mercifully short – the Resistance sent over their suggested mission plan that evening and a liaison the next morning. The latter ended up being a bit of a disappointment - an awkward looking man named Sanju Pyne. He was some sort of business man who’d apparently ingratiated himself enough with the Imperials to use them for whatever the Resistance needed, even tricking them into wandering into a handful of Resistance ambushes.

 

He knew how to handle a briefing too, as he clearly outlined the Resistance’s knowledge of what the Imperials were up to in the factory while also concisely describing where there were gaps in the Balmorran intelligence. Guy might have even had a future in the Republic military if he wanted it, but I couldn’t blame him for wanting to make a difference on his homeworld instead. People had their priorities, and his made perfect sense.

 

The Resistance intel he provided didn’t add a whole lot onto what their mission plan had suggested, but it was still useful – a worker access ramp to the northeast of the factory would give us the chance to get inside with minimal attention from the troops stationed inside. The initial mission plan hadn’t even included the ramp at all, and would have meant fighting through at least two security checkpoints. It’d also save us at least five minutes on either end of the mission, which was pretty damned helpful when you were heading into a large facility filled with hostile soldiers.

 

When he was finished, I decided to show my appreciation. “You’re a good man, Pyne. Wish we had more of you in Logistics, actually.” I reached out with my hand and shook his. “Be sure to have the drinks ready for us when we get back.”

 

His eyes flashed for a moment as he smiled. “I’ll have to take a rain check on that one – drinking doesn’t go well with the underground lifestyle.”

 

“Makes sense.” Drinking tended to be a popular pastime among soldiers, but it was probably easier to do when you were in an organized unit, less so when you were a civilian on an occupied world. Maker knows how much stupid **** you got away with because you weren’t somewhere like Balmorra when you got drunk. “Still, not every day you liberate a capital, right?”

 

Pyne smiled weakly. “I suppose not, but we have plenty of work to do before Balmorra is free.” He glanced across the room and nodded in Elara’s direction. “I couldn’t help noticing her accent - your medic’s Imperial?”

 

“Was,” I corrected gently. “She defected years ago. Took a lot of guts – her family’s apparently a big deal in the Empire.”

 

“Oh,” he replied. “I’m surprised the Republic doesn’t have her locked away so they can get all the intelligence they can on the Empire.”

 

“I’m sure they tried. She actually worked in a clinic on Coruscant for a few months while they questioned her and did the usual intelligence checks – she even has the name printed on her armor to remember it.” I rubbed the back of my head and scratched the itch I felt coming. “It was only after she got cleared that they let her into the military and even that is still on a provisional basis.”

 

“At least it sounds like they’re giving her a chance now. Must have been difficult with her family being so important.” He paused. “I didn’t recognize the name, though. Dorne, was it?”

 

“Yeah. Apparently her family’s been a big part of the military for generations.” I took a sip of water from the bottle I’d grabbed from our supplies. “Kinda like mine, I guess. Maybe that’s why we work well together.” Maybe you’re a damned idiot, too.

 

He gave another weak grin. “I’ll have to keep that in mind if I ever need a character reference in the Empire.”

 

“Ha. Definitely a reason to stay on her good side.” I glanced at the time and realized I needed to get prepped for the mission. “Anyway, let me know if you change your mind about that drink. We’ll be sure to have some extra for you.”

 

“We’ll see.” He grimaced and glance down at his data pad. “I’ve got a few messages I need to send out and a lot of work to take care of. Sobrik was a great start, but it was just the beginning. We’ve got a long fight ahead of us.”

 

I slapped him playfully on the back. “You’ll get there. One way or another, Balmorra will be free.” Then I pushed past him and reunited with the rest of the squad.

 

Elara stepped forward .“I have updated our mission profile to account for the entrance that was previously unaccounted for. Sergeant Jorgan and I have calculated that it will save us approximately nine minutes of transit time, and scans suggest it will allow us to avoid several highly secured areas as well.”

 

“Excellent. Commander Madine stated that the Resistance would be lending us one of their transports so we can get in close to the factory without attracting as much attention as we would with the Thunderclap. We’ll be heading out in thirty minutes, so make sure everything’s in order.” I eyed Forex carefully. “If anything comes up, let me know. I’ll be on board the ship.”

 

Nobody had any problems, apparently, as I ended up sitting in the Resistance ship for most of the remaining time without so much as a hint that anyone was going to join me. Part of me – a stupid part – had hoped Elara might sneak on board, but someone would have noticed that and we didn’t need any complications before an important operation.

 

We departed the Resistance camp on schedule, with Jorgan piloting the ship behind the cover of the medium-sized mountains that stretched northward toward the factory. There was a bit of an issue with a camouflaged Resistance unit, which took a shot at us with an RPG, but the Cathar handled it easily. After that, we enjoyed smooth sailing until the landing zone that the Resistance had marked off for us, nestled in some smaller hills that kept the ship safely out of sight of anyone at the factory, despite being only a few minutes away from the complex.

 

Hopefully our Balmorran friends did their jobs and knocked out the sensor net.

 

Forex took point, like always, carefully navigating the rocky terrain between us and our objective with the help of the mini-repulsors someone had thankfully thought to install on its chassis. Jorgan and Elara followed closely, while I swept the rear to ensure we didn’t have any unwelcome surprises from behind.

 

Pyne’s information ended up being exactly right – almost too right[/i]; there was only a pair of Imperials lounging outside the main door at the ramp as we approached. A couple of lights above the door winked on and off, but only in an automated pattern that suggested no one inside the factory was paying any more attention to the area than the two Imperials ahead of us. A couple of silenced shots from Forex made sure that the guards wouldn’t be paying anyone attention.

 

The droid then stepped aside as I strode forward to the door and began cracking the lock on it – it was simple cipher that a youth scout group would have been ashamed to come up with. That gave me pause – if only for a moment. The ramp might have been small and easy to overlook, but it should still have been secured better than it had been. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck raise slightly as I considered the various things the lack of security could imply, and found myself not liking most of them. Maybe if we hadn’t hit Sobrik, maybe, I could see them having slacked off on security here but now this place is the strategic center for their position in the region.

 

“Seems a bit too quiet.” I tried to keep my tone casual over the comm channel. “Keep your eyes open for anything suspicious.” I glanced at the scanner displays in my helmet, but the concentration of heat signatures didn’t look unusual for a facility the size of the factory. “Might be nothing, but I don’t want any surprises.”

 

There weren’t any surprises, though, just a couple of brief skirmishes with mostly unarmored and unprepared Imperials that we encountered on our way to the section where Vik was being held. They looked surprisingly young as we passed their corpses, but I supposed it made sense given the Imperial mindset - why send your best troops to get bogged down fighting a resistance movement when you could bloody your green recruits instead?

 

Especially when you can use the experience to turn them into the kind of soldiers that target civilians and massacre innocents.

 

Suddenly, I didn’t feel quite as bad about the dead Imperials we were leaving behind us.

 

We continued on, weaving in and out of corridors that led to rooms full of enough weaponry to take the entire planet over if you had enough soldiers to use them. I’d heard stories about Balmorra’s industrial capacity, but it was thing to see numbers on a data pad and quite another to see what those numbers represented in person. There was no time to gawk, though, not with the threat of Vik being killed or hauled away at any minute.

 

I winged a couple more Imperials that happened to patrol around the corner and toward us and then hustled forward; the rest of the squad followed behind me. Up ahead was the intersection of several main throughways, one of which led directly to the area that Vik was being held in. There were Imperials stationed throughout the intersection, a lot of them – way more than there should have been based on the intelligence estimate provided by the Resistance the previous night. Instead of the half dozen or so soldiers that should have been stationed in the room, there were at least two dozen armored soldiers and a uniformed officer standing to the rear.

 

There was something…wrong…about their formation, too – there were two heavy blaster cannon emplacements welded to the floor, as if they were expecting hostile company. One was pointed in our direction, the other down the corridor that we would have been coming down had we stuck to our original operational plan. It was almost certainly just a coincidence, but…

 

Something’s not right, but we don’t have time for this ****. We need to move quickly, or else we’ll find that Vik’s not right, either.

 

I made an arm motion at Forex to attract its attention. “Forex, we’re going to need you to blast the crap out of the turret on the left – we don’t have enough firepower to keep up suppressive fire long enough if both of their emplacements are blasting us. Station yourself in the alcove thirty degrees to my left, then use your repulsors and let them have it when you get my signal.” The droid ‘nodded’ and began shuffling away as I turned to Elara and Jorgan. “Elara, I need you coordinating from the rear, watching out for me and Sergeant Jorgan. I’ll take point and open up with flashbangs and a couple of fragmentation grenades to soften them up. Jorgan, you’re going to drop some mortar rounds on them. Forex and I will clean up whatever’s left.”

 

The Cathar nodded. “Locked and loaded, sir.”

 

“Please keep your head down, Sir, I –“ Elara paused, catching herself. “I would rather not have to perform emergency surgery during the middle of an operation.”

 

I gave her a cheeky thumbs up, but couldn’t tell if she appreciated the flippant gesture. I guessed not. “Think of it this way – if things go wrong, you’ll get to prove yourself as the new commander of Havoc Squad.”

I knew I’d screwed up immediately from the way I could hear her breath quicken over the command channel.

 

You can’t act like your expendable any more, you idiot, not even as a joke. You wouldn’t have said that to Ris, you sure as hell shouldn’t be saying it to Elara. She’s the best thing that’s happened to you in years and you’re someone she feels comfortable opening up to and feeling something for…maybe the only one. I realized that I needed to learn when that kind of joking might not be appropriate…at least after the mission was over. I gently tapped Elara on the shoulder to reassure her, hoping Jorgan wouldn’t notice – it was about all I could do for now.

 

I turned back to Forex, who was in position using the oddly shaped walls of the building as cover. I double tapped the communicator on my helmet, to let it know that I was starting the countdown – even without the looming threat of something happening to Vik, someone was going to notice us eventually if we didn’t make our move, and our best weapon was surprise anyway.

 

3…2…1…

 

Forex roared out of its hiding spot with a loud burst from its repulsors, the sound catching the Imperials entirely off-guard. Several immediately scrambled for cover, though I noticed that they drew their weapons and scanned the area for threats beyond Forex as they did so. Whatever unit they were from was clearly pretty well trained – these weren’t the same local forces we’d run into so far. It didn’t matter, though – we were trained to kill elite troops just as well as unseasoned ones.

 

I reached into my utility belt and grabbed a pair of flashbangs, activated them, and tossed them into opposite corners of the room. The bright glare added to the conflagration caused by the explosions from the rockets Forex was firing at the two turrets and blinded the Imperials, who had just started returning fire at the droid. The screens on their helmets kicked into gear to normalize the glare, but it took them a second or two that they just didn’t have.

 

My frag grenades landed, clanking along a couple of times before they exploded in a rush of energy, sending shrapnel and debris that tore through even the strongest armor the Imperials had. The half dozen or so troopers who were closest to the grenades fell where they stood, and the rest were either thrown backward by the blast or were forced to take cover to avoid taking hits themselves. The delay was short, but fatal.

 

Forex swept the room with its blasters, which turned almost red as they overheated from overuse. Jorgan’s cannon opened up on them, dropping explosive rounds into the bloody mess rapidly developing in the intersection. One round caught an Imperial right in the head, exploding it into a fine red mist that I’d have been disgusted by if I had the time. I didn’t have time for anything but the fight, so I rolled out from cover and sprayed the room with more blaster bolts, picking off a couple of the troopers that had managed to crawl out from cover and were trying to fire on Forex.

 

Jorgan whirled and blasted another trooper as he rose from behind an overturned table to bring his pistol to bear on me, while Forex continued to rain rockets at what little was left of the second turret. Behind the smoking wreckage, I could see the officer on his hands and knees, scrambling for what looked like his comm. I couldn’t get a good shot off with my rifle, so I drew my pistol and picked him off from range. I dropped my gun immediately after, and swept the room with my scanners. There were only two life-signs left, and they were faint and flickering. I motioned for Jorgan and Forex to sweep the room again.

 

The life signs disappeared.

 

Forex forged ahead down the corridor, followed by the rest of us. We needed to keep moving and get to Vik as soon as we could – someone would have heard the explosions and weapons fire, even if the officer hadn’t managed to get a communications out. It wasn’t like we wanted to stick around the area, anyway. What was left of the Imperials was…hard to see.

 

As I stepped over what remained of the Imperial commander, I noticed that the comm wasn’t a comm after all – it was a data pad. I leaned over his corpse and lifted the device off the ground, wiping away the blood and viscera from the screen. The pad was locked, which wasn’t surprising, but the cipher key was one I didn’t recognize, and looked more sophisticated than I would have expected for an Imperial unit on Balmorra, even if they had been stationed in a strategically critical location like the Arms Factory. I didn’t have time to puzzle that out, though, especially when the rest of the squad was impatiently waiting for me, so I slipped the pad into my pack and hustled to catch up.

 

We didn’t run into much resistance on the way to the area the Resistance said Vik was being held in, just a regular patrol of three Imperial soldiers that seemed almost blissfully unaware of what they had run into and a disorganized group of five poorly-armed Imperials that almost ran directly into us and lasted only a second or two after that. I couldn’t help but notice their old, patched-up, armor – I wondered if they were just conscripts caught up in a war they didn’t belong in.

 

Things rarely work out the way they should. You know that better than most.

 

I frowned as Forex trundled forward and leaned against the door leading into Vik’s room. “Sir, I detect no fewer than four voices with Imperial accents, located around a central location in the room.” Forex’s “eyes” turned to Elara for a moment, almost as if it recognized that its comment might have offended her. “I recommend we use Attack Formation Omega to surprise those Imperial fiends!”

 

Elara shook her head and pointed at a vent entrance in the wall. “Perhaps we might enter through that service entrance instead,” She said quietly. “It would allow us the element of surprise while also reducing the chance of accidentally harming Specialist Vik during the engagement.”

 

“Whatever best allows us to free our intrepid comrade!” The droid shut up real quick once all three of us stared at it.

 

“El-Lieutenant Dorne and I will enter through the vent. It’s a bit cramped for Sergeant Jorgan’s cannon and even worse for your bulk, Forex. You two will provide cover from the doorway.” Each of my companions acknowledged my order, so I strode over to the vent and removed the entrance, opening the entry into the room. “Move in ten seconds.” I paused. “Or when you hear loud noises coming from the room, whichever comes first.”

 

It sounded like either Elara or Jorgan huffed in response to the last bit. Maybe both.

 

I lowered my head slightly and moved into the vent, taking care not to bump my head against the top, and special care not to make too much noise. Elara followed a few steps behind, pistol at the ready.

 

We reached the end of the vent nine seconds into the ten second count. Perfect. I lowered my shoulder and powered my way into the room just as Forex broke down the main door.

 

There were three Imperials standing around Vik, not four. All of them had their pistols in their holsters, and each had an expression that suggested they didn’t have any interest in fighting, either. Their leader – a portly, middle-aged, man with an ugly moustache – turned a rather unhealthy looking shade of pink, while his compatriots both began shaking like a teenager asking a girl to a dance for the first time. I decided to take advantage of their weakness and motioned for them to drop their belts onto the floor. They complied without hesitation.

 

“On your hands and knees in the name of the Balmorran Resistance.” I was probably breaking a few rules by pretending to be Balmorran, but I didn’t see the need to properly identify us to the Imperials. “The sergeant over here is going to truss you up real good and make sure you don’t give us any trouble.”

 

I glanced over at Vik, only to find him grinning like an idiot despite being bound and on the ground. “You should have run when you had the chance. He’s going to show you what a real soldier does to chumps like you.”

 

The Imperial leader gaped at me as if I’d turned into some kind of monster. Karking Vik. This isn’t a game.

“Ignore Vik. The sergeant will bind you, but we aren’t going to hurt you.” I looked back at the Weequay, feeling the sudden urge to hit him instead. “As long as you don’t do anything stupid, nobody has to get hurt here.” The Imperials nodded silently, so I walked over behind Vik and cut his bindings with my service knife. He stretched out his arms for a few seconds, then forced himself to his feet.

 

“It’s good to finally meet you in person.” I couldn't quite tell if he was being sarcastic. "You're a true hero."

 

“Welcome aboard, Vik.” I decided to keep things casual. “How about we socialize somewhere where we aren’t likely to run into a few dozen Imperial troops.” I glanced over at Jorgan and saw that the three Imperials were tied up and no longer a threat. “Time to go.”

 

Vik nodded as we started making our way to the door. “Since we’re all on the same team, Captain, I should probably let you in on the nature of my mission.”

 

“What mission?” I shot him a suspicious look. “Commander Ardon wasn’t aware of the change in orders you decided to give yourself.”

 

“Ah, that.” He had a thoughtful look on his face as he directed us away from our exit and toward one of the storage areas. “I found a target of opportunity and decided to hit it. Would have worked, too. Damned Imps.”

 

“What target was that?” I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like the answer. "The weapons prototypes, you mean?"

 

Vik didn’t respond at first. Instead, he walked over to a smaller storeroom and quickly punched in a ten digit code. “Of course. You didn't think I'd leave those behind, did you?"

 

“So you think we’re going to walk into a heavily guarded storeroom, make off with these weapons prototypes and saunter out of here?” I wondered how Vik had lasted long enough in the military to get a disciplinary record like his with that kind of tactical planning.

 

“Of course not, boss.” He nodded at a rapidly approaching Twi’lek. “My contact clears the storeroom, leaving the prototypes to us.”

 

“To the Resistance, you mean.”

 

He gave me a strange look. “My buyers aren’t in the Resistance.”

 

“Your buyers?” It suddenly clicked. “You mean we’ve been chasing you around this planet to help you make a business deal?” My face reddened and heated up as the full implications clicked.

 

“This – this is outrageous.” Elara sounded furious. “It would be bad enough if you had merely misappropriated resources and manpower for your scheme, but you also led dozens of Resistance members to their death simply to get rich. How could you?”

 

“Pretty easily, actually.” Vik began to smirk…

 

So I caught him full in the face with an armored fist that dropped him to his knees again. His Twi’lek friend halted a few feet away and put his hands up to make it clear he wasn’t going to interfere. I gave him a wary look, then hit Vik again, opening up a cut right above his left eye. I noticed Jorgan stepping forward, clenching a fist like he wanted to join in. I waved him away.

 

“You karking son of a *****. You got people killed for some damned credits. You could have gotten my people killed too.” I seethed as I thought back on my conversation with Garza. She must have known he could be capable of something like this, which made her dismissal of my concerns that much worse. “Tell me why I shouldn’t tie you back up and leave you for the karking Imperials?”

 

*********** piece of ****.

 

Vik’s face twisted into a sneering smile. “Because you have your orders from General Garza, and you wouldn’t want to upset your commanding officer.”

 

I cocked my arm back to hit him again, but stopped short – Vik was an ******e who deserved everything he’d gotten and more, but he was also right. It wasn’t like he was the only villain in the situation too – Garza had had full access to his records and disciplinary information and had clearly decided not to fully inform me about my newest squad member. The hell he’s getting on my squad, now, though. **** this. And **** Garza.

 

"We have orders to bring Vik in, but not anything specific beyond that." Jorgan spoke as if we were discussing some mundane, everyday, topic. "Maybe we could take him to see the families of the men and women who died so he could have his fun."

 

"Tempting, but we don't have the time."

 

The Cathar shrugged, but I couldn't help but notice the murderous glint in his eye when he looked at the Weequay.

 

When I looked at Vik again, he was still oozing smug condescension. “What’ll it be, boss?”

 

“Jorgan, secure and monitor Specialist Vik. Use whatever methods are necessary to ensure he complies with orders.” I pointed at the Twi’lek. “You. There’s a change in delivery for those weapons. You will deliver them to the Resistance outpost in Bugtown. I will be giving the coordinates to this trusty droid.” I turned to Forex, suddenly only my second least-favorite member of the squad. “Forex, you will ensure the weapons prototypes are delivered as I requested.”

 

Vik gave us a baleful look as Forex responded with an enthusiastic “For the Republic!”

 

“We’ll use one of these supply transports to get back to the ship. The factory will be crawling with Imperials, and we’ll be short Forex. There’s no point in courting trouble.” I turned back to the droid. “Once the weapons are delivered to Commanders Ardon and Madine, you will allow him to go on his way.” I gave the Twi’lek a wry grin. “Though I suspect you won’t be all that welcome back here.”

 

“This is bulls-“ Vik began, before I caught him across the face with an open-palmed slap.

 

“Jorgan – if he talks again, muzzle him.”

 

“With pleasure, sir!” Jorgan sounded happy about the possibility. A bit too happy. "Son of a ***** doesn't deserve a rescue."

 

I didn't really disagree, but it wouldn't do anyone any good for me to say so.

 

We climbed into one of the transports scattered through the room. They were normally used for short distance cargo transportation, so it was uncomfortable as all hell, but it did the job. I sent the hangar door a query identifying us as another standard shipment – the Imperials hadn’t anticipated us going out this way, so there was no lockout or override in place to stop us. In fact, we didn’t run into anything at all the entire way back to our ship.

 

Small blessings.

 

Since Jorgan was watching Vik, I climbed into the pilot’s seat to get us back to the Resistance outpost. Jorgan and Elara clambered in after Vik, strapping themselves into the seats in case we ran into trouble. I hoped like hell that we didn’t, because I didn’t have Jorgan’s experience as a pilot and doubted I’d be able to come close to matching him if things got hairy. Luckily, the trip back to the base was as uneventful as the flight out of the storage area – the only craft in the air seemed to be the small fighters the Balmorrans were fond of.

 

Jorgan took Vik to the brig, while Elara followed me into the small closet the local Resistance commander had set aside as my “command center”. I still wasn’t sure if he’d just been doing his best or if he was trying to take a potshot at the Republic interlopers. Maybe a bit of both. I sighed heavily as I slumped against the wall. I realized I’d be more comfortable in my chair, though, so I started stripping off my armor and piling it on a table.

 

“Sir, permission to speak freely?” Elara gave me a concerned look.

 

“Of course, Elara? What’s on your mind?”

 

“I realize that you would like to unwind, but was hoping we could prepare a statement to General Garza regarding Tanno Vik’s conduct here on Balmorra. Surely she would not continue to insist upon his inclusion in the squad now.” She furrowed her brow. “To be so callous over the deaths he caused simply to get a little richer…”

 

“Maybe tomorrow morning, Elara.” Her frown deepened. “It’s not that I disagree, I just want to make sure I cool off a bit and approach it with a clear head. I – I almost lost control for a moment there. I just wanted to make him hurt to pay him back for all the hurt he’s caused.” I stopped fiddling with my armor for a second and looked guiltily at my hands. “I almost became exactly what I’m supposed to be fighting.”

 

Elara placed one of her hands on mind and gently cupped my cheek with the other. “The fact you recognized what you were doing was wrong is why you aren't like them at all, Ayrs. I think any of us would have felt right hitting Specialist Vik.”

 

“I doubt you would have,” I shot back lightly. “Probably would have just piled up some paperwork for him and some extra physical exams to clear him medically.”

 

“Perhaps.” Elara wrinkled her nose and smiled slightly. “I should go check in on Sergeant Jorgan and Vik – I would not be surprised if Jorgan was as eager to mete out punishment as you were.”

 

“Wouldn’t surprise me either,” I replied as I slipped onto my chair. Then, a thought occurred to me. “Actually, can you take a look at something for me?” I reached into my pack and pulled out the Imperial data pad, which I handed to her. “I pulled this off of the Imperial officer commanding that ambush we ran into in the factory. It’s encrypted, of course, but the key doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen from the Imperial military. I wasn’t sure if you might recognize it from when you, uh, were an Imperial.”

 

Elara stared at the pad pensively, hitting a few keys now and then. “I must admit that I do not recognize this particular encryption key, Sir. But if I’m not mistaken…” She paled slightly as her voice trailed off.

 

“If you aren’t mistaken…” I repeated gently.

 

“I believe this bears several hallmarks of Imperial Intelligence, especially this pattern here.” She turned the pad so I could see the screen and pointed to a series of numbers. “It’s just – I don’t understand why simple garrison troops would be using such a cipher.”

 

“Me neither.” I felt a chill travel down my spine. Imperial Intelligence had a reputation. “I’ll…I’ll forward it to Commander Madine and see if he has anyone on staff that can crack it. It might be nothing.”

 

Or, it could mean that our activities were attracting more attention from across the border than we’d thought. Maybe the Empire was working just as hard to get ready for the next war as we were.

 

“Of course, Sir.” Elara paused, then leaned over and kissed me gently on my forehead. “Please be sure to get some rest.”

 

I grinned up at her. “Hard to get much rest when I’m busy thinking about you.”

 

“I will have to investigate some remedies for that, Sir” she replied in a jaunty tone.

 

“Good,” I growled as I pushed myself up from the chair and slipped around the desk. She flushed slightly but smiled again and more broadly as I wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her in for a quick kiss. I felt her shiver slightly as our lips pressed against each other, and felt myself do the same a heartbeat later. Stars, she feels good. “I’ll find some time for us. Somewhere nice, too.”

 

Her green eyes twinkled like precious gems. “I would like that.”

 

“Have a good night, Elara.”

 

“Good night, Ayrs.”

 

I watched her closely as she left, partly so I could have a second to catch my breath and partly because she made trooper armor look damned good.

 

Then, I sat down again and quickly forwarded the cipher key to Madine back at Bugtown. If Imperial Intelligence was operating against us on Balmorra, we needed to know how much they knew and what their plans were. And fast.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Lesaberisa

Still need to read your other story, but really enjoyed catching up with this one - Ayrs is a lot of fun and I like how he has very different/unique relationships with the people around him. Although I can't say I'm going to be happy when he figures out who sold them out since I like the character! Edited October 10, 2015 by RarePorcupine

I've read some of your stories ;o so far very intriguing, thank you! It has inspired me to writing some of my own maybe!