"General?"
The caped mechanical menace turned, and Major Hyke and two of his captains came to report Harker's orders. "General Grevious," Pegent said, "report from Admiral Harker. His fleet has taken command of embargo forces surrounding Tholatin and has given the order to proceed with the ground assault."
Grevious hissed through his pale mask in a deep mechanical voice. "Alert all ground forces and dropship commands," he ordered. "Calculate all possible Tholatin resistance that may still linger along their last know trajectory and disburse our ground forces to search for them." He glared with his piercing eyes and continued. "I do not want the Jedi temple that Kamon Vondiranach established destroyed
at all. It will be captured and become the headquarters of our new Tholatin outpost. As well, it will be a message to the Jedi across the galaxy that another of their order has been decimated. Kamon probably did not even remain to defend his own world. For that, we'll reap the rewards for his cowardice."
"Yes, General," he answered, trying to hide his fear. "We'll find them."
Then the major turned to an aide. "The order is given. Prepare for ground assault," he instructed. As the aide moved to carry out his orders, a shadow of worry crossed the major's face. He was not at all certain if they would be successful in the capture of the temple, since it was a beacon of the Tholatin Jedi Order and the Protectorate when it existed and the rebels would destroy it, rather than let it fall into the hands of the Black Dragon Empire.
*****
In the mess hall, Ramz was waiting for a self-heating meal packet to cook. Commander Davin had returned and sat with Zem at an expanded durosteel table with their cups of the vile ship's brew of caffa.
"Grevious must really think a lot of you to bring you along. I guess that last mission to Vegresso really impressed that mechanical beast. You took out that pirate hub before I even dropped in."
Zem sipped the caffa, made a face. "Yeah. Part of the job."
"I'll bet," Ramz said as he put his tray down on the next table. He grinned to the Lieutanant Commander. "Hitting on our little assassin, eh?"
"Shut up, Ramz," Davin said.
"Hey, man, I'm all for a little action myself, but not before we set off on our missi--"
Davin came up, caught Ramz under the chin with the
V of his thumb and fingers, and shoved him back against the wall. "I said shut the @#%$ up!"
Ramz's voice was choked when he tried to speak. "Hey, man, @#%$, let go!"
Zem saw the tendons in Davin's hand standing out. He was pratically holding the bigger man off the floor, pinned to the wall like a struggling insect. He seemed too strong for a man his size. The Rodian, Nikto, and Trandoshan hooted and grunted at the display.
Abruptly Davin relaxed, pulled his hand away.
Ramz rubbed at his throat. "You're crazy, Commander, you know that?" He turned and walked out of the room, leaving his steaming dinner behind.
"The hell you did that for?" Zem asked.
Davin looked flustered, embarrassed. "He's got a big mouth and he shoots it off too much."
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
Zem let it alone. There was something else here, but she wasn't sure what it was. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was.
The klaxons blared and the lights dimmed to red. The general order for battle stations was sounded. It only meant one thing: the order was given to begin the assault planetside. Major Hyke's voice blared over the intercoms, ordering the assault force to the hangar bays.
"Gear up, Zem. Meet me at the shuttle in ten," Davin ordered, then left the mess hall.
Ten minutes later..."I never did get your first name back on Vegresso, Davin," Zem asked as they toured the interior of the assault craft. Here were racks of blaster rifles, power convertors, concussion grenades and other hardware, all securely stored inside the shuttle's lockers. Davin's team of death commandos were already gearing up inside the ship while the other teams scrambled to their shuttles around the
Sleeping Death's hangar bay. One by one, the assault shuttles and dropships veered off from the bays and plotted their course downward.
Davin said, "Yes. Kix."
"Kix," she said, testing the word.
"Yep."
Zem turned to look at the racks of small arms under their cases. Davin put a hand on her shoulder, to point her toward a new model on the rack.
"Don't touch me," she said.
He snatched his hand away. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."
"It's okay. When I was a prisoner on Saheelindeel, when the guards put their hands on you it almost always meant you were in trouble. After the hand came a injector, to fill you with truth serum that made you feel sluggish and stupid. Then the interrogations began."
He sighed. "Yeah, I can understand that."
"Can you? Do you know what it's like living part of your life in a prison camp full of crazy people?"
"No," he admitted. "But I've spent my share of time in camps. Not fun places."
He changed the subject. "Here, here's the newest weapon we're using on this mission." He pulled the clean model from the rack. "This here is your four-point-eight-kilo-fully-automatic-electronic-operated-Wyvern-M41-E blaster-rifle-with-concussion-grenade-launcher-and-ten-millimeter-rail-gun," he said, as if reciting a litany. "It has an effective range of five hundred meters, holds a one-hundred-round slug magazine of armor-piercing with a one-hundred-round power pack for the blaster rifle, and mounts a thirty-milllimeter pump-operated concussion grenade launcher under the barrel with a range of one hundred meters. Officially."
He grinned. "Sully Anre didn't like the prototype Tion Industries made for us to use over on Vegresso, so they went back to the drawing boards to redesign it." He shrugged. "Unfortunately, this will be our first time using them."
"Anyway, at close range, this is a mean machine and you don't want to be on the recieving end in anything less than full class-VII battle armor or you get turned into bloody mush."
He held the weapon out. "Take a look. It won't bite."
Zem held her smile in check. The model number had changed, but the basic weapon was not that different from the prototype she used back on Vegresso. She took the weapon, thumbed the power pack catch, and checked to be sure the safety was off, then slammed the power pack back into place. She cycled the action twice to make certain the other chambers were cleared, then stroked the grenade launcher's pump twice to make sure the loading tube was empty. She pulled the weapon to her shoulder, sighted at the far wall, both eyes open, and dry fired the piece. The electronic trigger was rigged to make an audible click for such practice and did so. She lowered the weapon, twisted it to present arms, and tossed it at Kix. The weapon felt so much smaller and lighter now than it had when she used the first prototype.
He was surprised, but managed to catch the rifle without dropping it.
"Trigger's a little stiff and it's got some creep," she said. "The techs should run a diagnostic on it when we get back." She was showing off, but what the hell.
He laughed. "I'm impressed. Where'd you learn to do that?"
"I played with the prototype enough before we left for Vegresso on our last mission." She paused, then said simply, "I know a lot about weapons because I was with the Tion rebellion. Soon after, the BDE took my family hostage and vaped everyone I knew."
"Damn," he said. "I'm sorry. All this time I worked with you on those past missions, I thought--"
She shrugged and cut him off. "What about you? You have family? Wife? Kids? A home?"
"No. The Tion Cluster is my home and the BDE is my family."
Zem thought about that for a second. Well. Other than going off to get killed they had something else in common. No family.
"Listen, about your family," he began. "I am sure after this mission I could talk to Grevious to pull some strings to have them released--"
She cut him off again. "It's fine. They're secure now. I've spoken to them after I returned from Vegresso. Our victory convinced the mechanical general to release them from custody. They're safe on Argai now, and as long as I remain working for the BDE, they will always be safe."
"Okay," he nodded. "I didn't mean to pry--"
"Sure you did. That's okay. I've been pried open by interrogation. I got used to it."
He stared at his feet.
"Let me ask
you something," she said.
"Okay. That's fair."
"Why'd you really grab Ramz in the mess hall?"
He sighed. "I thought it was crude in front of a lady and disrepectful to a superior officer."
"A lady?" she smirked.
He shrugged, stared at his feet again.
It hit her all of a moment.
Holy frak! This guy likes me! He's concerned about me! Here I am, going off to get possibly killed on Tholatin and here's this commander of a death commando team falling for me. How about that...Suddenly she saw him in a new light. He was her age, he had nobody but the BDE and they were sending him off to die. He was lonely. She knew what that felt like.
Zem reached out, touched him on the shoulder. "Hey," she said. "Kix."
He looked up from his boots, his gaze bright, pale eyes clear and searching. "Yeah?"
"I think you better order your men aboard and get this shuttle moving. We got a job to do."
He grinned, like a kid with a new toy. "Yeah, guess you're right."
"I know I'm right," she playfully replied.
"Alright, let's move out," he replied, his composure back to all seriousness.
The first wave of assault shuttles and dropships fanned out over Tholatin as the
Sleeping Death yawned open its hangar bay doors over the planet, accompanied by the other Cutters, Pickets, and Shotos...
A Minute Later..."Sir?" The pilot chimed over the comlink in Davin's helmet as the assault shuttle begun to shudder entering Tholatin's atmosphere.
"Yes?"
"Message from
Sleeping Death. The Imperial Galactic Empire has jumped into our space and are establishing orbit. Orders are to make ground and await further instruction while Harker and Grevious deal with our new guest."
Frak!"Copy that, pilot." Davin replied...