A micro-jump doesn't take long.
But it was enough time for Major Kreb to run another check on his TIE Avenger's systems.
He had no fundamental doubts that everything would be in order.
And it was.
Checking the functionality of the onboard systems was something of a ritual for him.
Like the photograph on the control panel.
There was no point in pretending, and no way to avoid it.
Only moments remained until reentry into realspace and the start of free hunting.
The counter in the upper corner of the command-pilot display showed zeros, and the nonexistent whitish tunnel outside the fighter's cockpit shattered into billions of shards.
Some became the familiar, and therefore unnoticed, distant stars.
Others became the massive disks of matter being devoured by the black holes of the Ma'u Skopleniya.
Still others became the engine nozzles of starships.
And yet others became the flashing laser, blaster, ion, and turbolaser energy bolts exchanged at furious speed between the enemy spacecraft—the glow of impacts and the flashes of destroyed enemy starfighters.
The "Tartar" attack pattern assumed that the Dominion fleet would emerge from its micro-jump in hyperspace at an elevation above the enemy starships.
And so it happened.
The Avenger squadron materialized beneath the belly of the Super Star Destroyer, a few hundred meters from its forward blade.
The forces of gravity were already at work here, since the Guardian, hovering above the previously solitary Interdictor, was beginning to turn.
If hell has a true image, it is the volleys of a Super Star Destroyer.
An avalanche of green and blue fire, vomited forth by thousands of guns, crashed down upon the gray-cream hulls of the enemy starships.
The Alliance's Star Cruisers had, of course, managed to protect themselves with deflector shields.
And their constant energy recharge system was saving them from instant destruction.
But it couldn't last long.
The Dominion fleet began the slaughter, appearing above both enemy fleets.
The Alliance and the pirates were stunned by the audacity of turning on the gravity traps.
Any attempt to escape the trap had failed.
Time to reap the bloody harvest.
Kreb pulled his machine into an intercept course for the newest enemy starfighter, an Alliance E-wing.
E-wing, the Alliance's latest starfighter. (Also known as the "E-wing.")
his study by Dominion pilots and engineers had been swift and hurried, since not many machines of this type had been captured, even as scrap.
But studying the new machine—nicknamed the "E-wing" by Dominion pilots (essentially, no one spent much time thinking up a convenient nickname; they just used what the Alliance pilots called it on their comm frequencies)—was necessary.
To understand how to fight it.
There are several ways to understand an enemy machine's capabilities.
You can fight against them long and hard, noting their characteristics and capabilities.
Or you can collect wreckage and damaged machines, reverse-engineering them directly on the Guardian's deck after destroying General Solo's fleet and moving on to Kessel.
So at the moment, only the pilots of the Guardian and its escort group had experience fighting these types of fighters.
And they would be the ones to test the veracity of their technicians' hypotheses, drawn from studying the enemy machines.
One could say that the Avenger squadron's free hunting was precisely a test of those hypotheses.
And so, Major Kreb began the testing.
* * *
Mara watched thoughtfully as four commandos in black armor and a dozen guards loaded into a Delta-class boarding shuttle.
The metal claw-feet of the droidekas clattered softly on the landing deck; they were indispensable in an attack on an enemy flagship.
Her hand nervously played with the hilt of her lightsaber, her gaze drifting to Grand Admiral Thrawn standing beside him.
It wasn't often that the Supreme Commander deigned to give instructions to her and the other units, combining them into a single strike force with one purpose.
"Lieutenant Colonel Tierce and his people will provide you with full support in the battle against the Inquisitors," Thrawn broke the silence.
Mara inwardly winced.
She wanted to say: "I carved up the embryo of a Sith Lord into pieces, what are two Inquisitors to me?"
But she kept quiet.
She remembered the time spent on Vjun with Obscuro and her defeat at the hands of the Dark Side Elite.
She remembered how her pride had backfired when she faced the same "Targeter" in the Imperial Palace library.
Failures had caught up with her whenever she considered herself strong enough to deal with things with the same finesse as before.
"Thank you," the girl replied quietly.
Unable to restrain herself, she added caustically, looking at Thrawn in profile:
"Admit it, you're giving me your elite forces as support because you care about me?"
Thrawn's head turned as slowly as the turret of a ship's turbolaser.
And now, instead of red eyes, two gleaming muzzle openings were staring at her.
But somehow they looked more like the mirrors of the superlasers of both Death Stars than ordinary cannons...
"I understand," Mara averted her gaze, pretending to be intensely interested in watching the droidekas being loaded. "Not stupid."
She added the last just in case.
A reminder to herself and to Thrawn that she did have a brain.
Though sometimes she felt that wasn't entirely true...
"I'm glad you remember that," she thought she heard Thrawn's voice sound a little warmer than his usual indifferent tone? "Otherwise, I wouldn't have wasted time recruiting you and opening your eyes to Karrde and the Emperor."
"And that's all?"
Mara felt the Force within her tremble whenever she was near Thrawn.
Or was it an effect caused by him being within range of the ysalamiri, whose cage was held at a short distance from the Grand Admiral by one of the guards?
The boarding party had already embarked. Only a few guards remained, and then they could depart.
"I think it's time," Mara's gaze swept across the empty launch bay.
As always—when she was on a ship, none of the crew members remained nearby.
There was no telling who might recognize the deceased "Lieutenant Jade," the late Grand Admiral's adjutant...
"Yes," said Thrawn. "It's time for you to go, Mara."
The girl took a step forward and froze.
For the first time, the Grand Admiral had called her that.
Not "Hand."
Not "Jade."
Not "Lady Jade."
By her first name.
As far as she knew, few had been honored so.
The fingers of the last Grand Master of the Old Jedi Order—Yoda—were more than enough to count those to whom Thrawn referred by name as a sign of his respect and close relationship.
And, just a minute, if the archives were correct, Yoda's race had three-fingered upper limbs.
Their eyes met.
Mara tried to find something that would explain such a sudden "warming."
But an expressionless face and burning eyes were a poor specimen for a physiognomy lesson.
The girl sighed and nodded silently.
Why had she even thought it would be simple?
And what interest did she hold for him, apart from her service and the execution of delicate assignments?
She even felt a sense of shame for that burst of emotion and provocative behavior in the Grand Admiral's quarters...
Her wild red head drooped, her chin touching her chest, symbolizing her emotional collapse.
The girl felt a bitterness inside.
Even disappointment.
Something akin to what she had felt when she realized Karrde was nothing more than a two-faced...
Suddenly, the polished floor of the hangar in front of her was blocked by a snow-white fabric, and she was pressed against a strong, muscular chest.
Mara froze, her eyes wide open.
At the same time, she felt herself being squeezed as if she had gone to hug a Wookiee.
With the sole exception that there was more care in these arms, an unexpected tenderness...
Mara slowly, trying not to ruin the feeling of magic, raised her head, not taking her eyes off the strong chin.
Two searing fires, like Mustafar where Darth Vader had been bathed, looked straight into her soul...
"You are not indifferent to me, Mara," Thrawn's velvety voice flowed like sweet molasses into her ears.
But for some reason, her legs felt weak.
She just wanted to buckle them and hang on the arms of the man in the snow-white tunic who was embracing her...
"Really?" she whispered.
"Yes," a clear answer. And no: "Have I ever lied to you, Jade? Do you have any reason to doubt me?" "But if you don't come back—you'll never know how much. Or in what capacity. On the other hand, your success will mean receiving a comprehensive answer to the question that interests you."
Only now did Mara realize that Thrawn was actually outside the ysalamiri's suppression field.
And nothing was stopping her from calling upon the Force to get into his head...
Yes, it would be far from easy, but she would get answers to all her questions.
She would find out if he was playing with her.
If he was motivating her to get what he wanted...
It would be so simple...
Mol had said it was perfectly natural to use one's abilities to understand one's interlocutor.
She just had to reach out, focus her thought on...
The girl bit her lip, stopping her train of thought.
No.
Not because she might not learn anything—she had no experience getting into the head of a member of Thrawn's race.
But where was the line she shouldn't cross to avoid becoming a female version of Darth Maul?
Or Palpatine?
Why did she have the right to do such a thing to satisfy her desires, to violate the privacy of thought?
Thrawn would clearly know she had been in his head.
She simply won't be able to keep secret what she learns about his true feelings for her.
And what can she expect after that?
That he'll forgive her, like he forgave her failures before?
Or that he'll give the order and Rukh will gut her like a nerf being prepped for meat?
Not to mention, should she even know whether Thrawn feels anything for her, and whether he feels anything at all?
The girl licked her lips, looking the Grand Admiral in the eye.
For a moment it seemed to her that he was studying her, as if offering her a choice, like back on Tangrene...
Here I am, right in front of you.
Open and defenseless.
You have a chance to get into my head and get answers — whether I'm lying to you or not.
Not a direct quote, of course, but...
"He constantly thinks, analyzes, develops strategy. He showed no fear and studied me with curiosity."
That's what Palpatine once said about Thrawn.
And even recorded that phrase in his most disgusting book — the one Mara burned...
"I'll remember those words, Grand Admiral," Mara said just as quietly, not taking her eyes off him. "And..."
She wanted to say something devastating.
Something monumental, like one of Thrawn's: "They set a trap for us? Excellent, we'll walk right into it!"
With the same effect, where the aftertaste of Thrawn falling into someone's trap turns into panic and the instigators tearing their hair out.
But nothing came to mind.
Absolutely nothing.
"And?" Thrawn repeated.
"And I won't let you down," Mara said firmly, putting her hands behind her back, slipping out of the Grand Admiral's embrace, and backing toward the ship, her gaze fixed on the Chiss.
The farther she moved away from him, the more a mischievous little girl frolicked inside her.
And she broke free.
"I hope you won't be upset that your subordinates saw our hug?" she asked, running up the boarding ramp and stopping in the hatchway.
The thought came to her when she spotted several portholes on the side of the Delta.
Surely someone was staring!
What a sight it was!
"I won't be," the Grand Admiral replied calmly.
Mara gave him her trademark crooked smirk, then disappeared into the ship's cabin.
The hatch sealed automatically.
With a sly smile on her lips, she darted into the troop compartment to catch the observers in an awkward moment...
And ran into soldiers silently listening to Colonel Tierce's briefing, strapped into their crash webbing.
They didn't even turn their heads toward her, demonstrating that the briefing interested them more than what was happening outside the shuttle.
Sighing, Mara dropped into an empty seat and silently joined the listeners.
But her back burned where Thrawn had held her in his embrace.
Why couldn't he have just put his hand on her waist, huh?
Then she wouldn't have any doubts at all.
Now she had to complete the mission brilliantly and take down two Inquisitors at once, to earn the right to insist Thrawn give her answers.
Mara suddenly realized a simple thing.
She had just become the victim of a joke: "How to intrigue an imbecile?"
The answer is simple: "I'll tell you later."
"Hutt's jester," amber streaks glinted in her eyes, the color of pure emerald.
Well, that's it, Inquisitors — you'd better run.
* * *
The "heart" of the enemy's latest fighter was two powerful engines mounted in two nacelles under the wings, far from the machine's center of mass.
Not the best solution.
Kreb proved this postulate by blowing the right engine of the pursued machine to pieces with a missile.
The deck engineers' assumption was confirmed.
Damage to and disabling of one engine automatically meant the second, far from the fighter's center, created a powerful yawing moment.
One that was difficult to compensate for with maneuvering thrusters alone, whose tiny nozzles were also on the wings.
That's exactly what Kreb was now observing as he pursued the enemy's wildly spinning machine.
So far, this engine placement gave the E-wing only one advantage.
If one engine was damaged, its yawing moment turned it into a hard-to-hit target.
The targeting computer simply couldn't lock onto the Alliance machine as it spun wildly and was thrown from side to side by attempts to stabilize its course.
However, credit where it's due — it took the enemy only three seconds to compensate for the spin.
He did it in a rather unorthodox way.
Switched the surviving engine to reverse and began short, metered bursts with the maneuvering thrusters.
This was also predicted.
That trick stops the spin, but at the same time reduces speed and leaves the machine a stationary target for a short time.
Fractions of a second...
But that was enough for the Major.
Four green-white laser blades slashed through the fuselage of the Alliance's newest fighter.
Internal detonation left no trace of either the pilot or his astromech.
A second E-wing flashed past, breaking into a turn away from Avenger-Nine, confirming yet another feature.
The enemy's engines, though oddly placed, boasted high output.
They allowed it to reach speeds exceeding the maximum speed of a TIE fighter by ten megalights.
This brought the enemy starfighter's cruising speed to one hundred and twenty megalights, matching the Dominion's line TIE Interceptors.
And also gave it enviable maneuverability.
But it would be naive to think the flight controller would risk such an experiment — testing the E-wing's capabilities against pilots who knew the machine — without pitting their best against them.
One hundred and forty-five megalights cruising speed for the TIE Avenger was an advantage the enemy couldn't exploit even in their new fighter.
That's why the fourth pair of Avengers effortlessly neutralized the enemy's maneuverability advantage over the familiar X-wings with their own acceleration.
However, the enemy had already mastered the machine well enough.
Nine and Eight felt that firsthand when the enemy managed to strip their deflectors.
The leader of the fourth of six pairs in the Avenger squadron responded in kind, knocking out the enemy's energy shielding.
The hull withstood several bursts — something even the legendary X-wings couldn't dream of.
But even increased protection didn't save the E-wing from destruction by the next salvo.
So, even this brief evaluation test showed that the enemy's new starfighter already deprived the Dominion's line machines of their advantage through equal speed and maneuverability.
Therefore, only TIE Avengers and TIE Defenders could guarantee victory over the E-wings, thanks to their superior speed and maneuverability.
But they were also much more expensive.
Not a single production-model TIE Defender had yet appeared in the Dominion, despite accelerated efforts to recreate it.
Interestingly, the E-wings lacked the manufacturer's signature sliding S-foils found on the X-wings and their predecessor heavy fighters, the ARC-170.
Perhaps because the manufacturers who split from Incom Corporation — the E-wing makers — didn't have patent rights to that design.
Therefore, this decision, along with the E-wing's modular construction, simplified production and maintenance of each machine compared to the X-wing.
Destroying his third enemy fighter, Kreb noted that the astromechs on the E-wings weren't actively participating in the battle.
Thus confirming that astromech droids still performed only auxiliary functions: navigation, hyperdrive control, calculating coordinates for hyperspace jumps, assisting the pilot with weapon aiming, and managing scanning and identification systems.
However, something needed to be tested even in this case.
The Major spent several minutes selecting a new victim for his "experiments."
Laser cannon fire breached the weakened deflector of the E-wing, and the next hit punched through the cockpit.
The machine with its dead pilot began to drift away, tumbling uncontrollably across its axes.
And at that same moment, it began to slowly right itself, demonstrating that the astromech had taken control.
Satisfied with the observation, Major Kreb used another missile to destroy the damaged machine.
The Avenger squadron commander wasn't about to waste time punching through strong deflectors again.
Nor finishing off the droid to claim a trophy.
The droid and pilot in the E-wing were arranged in tandem; the droid socket was behind the pilot.
The droid was placed inside the fuselage, hidden under an armored cowling.
Thus, the designers reduced the droid's vulnerability to enemy fire, but at the cost of taking up nearly a square meter of internal space that could have held valuable equipment.
There was another problem.
To extract the astromech from the fighter, one had to not only remove the armored cowling but also disassemble part of the upper cannon, which was in addition to those mounted on the wings.
This was frankly a poor decision.
Extracting the astromech from the hull when part of the fighter had to be dismantled was not the simplest approach to starfighter maintenance.
Downright wrong.
But the manufacturer wanted to keep the astromech safe and just shoved it under armor.
A bad compromise.
It would have been simpler to armor the droids themselves, if the manufacturer didn't like that on X-wings, astromechs were often destroyed by a shot to their dome-shaped heads.
There's every reason to suspect that during active combat, the droid essentially "lived" in the fighter, since extracting it was probably a very labor-intensive process.
Besides the three blaster cannons, the E-wing, like the X-wings, was traditionally equipped with torpedo launchers located in the lower part of the machine.
The torpedoes themselves were housed inside the fuselage, behind the Alliance pilot's seat.
The enormous magazine capacity — sixteen torpedoes — allowed a squadron of E-wings to pose a major threat to almost any type of large enemy ship.
For reference, the New Republic's primary frontline starfighter, the T-65B X-wing upgrade, carried only six cumulative missiles effective against small craft, or the infamous proton torpedoes, which were also dangerous to larger starships.
Paired with the New Republic's newest bombers, the K-wings, the E-wings represented a serious threat.
It was believed that the only competition to the E-wings in attacking large ships were the B-Wing fighter-bombers, well-known slow and unwieldy "wishbones."
However, they had long been studied and were easily shot down even by young Dominion pilots.
But B-Wings were much slower (only 60-70 MGLT) and not as agile.
Another significant problem for the Alliance and their new machines was the short range of their blaster cannons.
The cause of this problem was strictly design-related.
The Alliance had almost no native supply of tibanna gas, so they used low-grade artificial gas of that type.
Combined with the imperfections of the blaster cannons on the entire E-wing family, this meant that during firing, the weapons often malfunctioned or had significantly reduced range.
The effectiveness could be increased quite simply — the Guardian's technicians suspected that increasing energy output from the ship's reactor would solve the low range problem of the E-wings.
But it would also lead to frequent overheating of the cannons and overloading the onboard generator.
Judging by the fact that the enemy engaged Imperial machines at almost "blaster range," the problem was widespread and unsolved.
However, if the enemy took the same path that the Guardian's technicians had found, there would be no great gain.
At best, the increased energy output would cause weapon failure; at worst, an explosion.
Either outcome suited the Dominion.
Finishing off his seventh E-wing, Kreb noted that the enemy's blaster accuracy was also low.
According to the Guardian's technicians, the rather primitive targeting system installed on the E-wings they'd studied noticeably reduced firing effectiveness, especially against fast, actively maneuvering targets.
The Avengers, countering the Alliance's newest machines, suffered only hits to their deflectors.
No hull damage had been sustained so far, indirectly indicating that the TIE Avenger was more than suitable as a reliable means of destroying enemy "new toys."
However, it must be assumed that if any of the Alliance pilots survived the battle and made it back, all of the E-wing's "teething problems" would be reported to command.
And an upgrade would follow immediately.
Replacing the fire control system with something "a little better" wasn't as big a problem as it seemed.
Overall, after half an hour of combat, when the Avenger squadron had finished destroying four entire squadrons of E-wings, Major Kreb had formed a complete assessment of the Alliance's new starfighter, with all possible emphasis.
On one hand, the Republic's engineers had created a very fast and maneuverable fighter, protected by thick armor and a powerful shield, with substantial missile and torpedo armament.
But on the other hand, the machine suffered from numerous technical flaws.
Each of them gave the Dominion and its pilots an advantage over the enemy and led to the destruction of the enemy's small craft.
Seizing the opportunity, Major Kreb withdrew the squadron from the combat area for rotation and rearming.
And, while waiting for his expended missiles to be replaced, he contacted the controller to report.
Just like all his pilots.
It took only two minutes for every pilot in the Avenger squadron to relay their observations to the Guardian's OCC.
No matter how skilled they were as pilots or how good their equipment was — accidents or unfavorable factors happened constantly in any battle.
Any of the Avengers might not return from combat.
But each of their observations was important to prevent the enemy's new fighters from becoming "superweapons."
They had completed their task.
The E-wings were studied, and theories became axioms.
After finishing rearming, Major Kreb led his machine and the eleven pilots following him back out to continue the free hunt for enemy small craft.
Nothing personal — just work.
* * *
"That bitch abandoned us!" Namman Cha said with disgust, punching the decorative paneling of the corridor filled with dead Republic soldiers.
The few Sidra Syndicate boarding troops behind him tried to pretend they were furniture, knowing full well what their enraged commander was capable of.
"You know she couldn't have done it without Dominion help," Kyrisa replied in a serpentine hiss.
Namman hit the wall twice more, cracking the thin white durasteel panel.
One that could withstand a decompression impact.
"She betrayed us," the Inquisitor declared. "In the most brazen way."
"Can't say I'm surprised," the Dathomirian witch echoed him. "Betraying allies isn't new to her."
"Then we need to get out of here," Cha said decisively, looking down the corridor that led to numerous decks.
They'd have to get through all of them, killing the ship's defenders, to capture it.
But what was the point if the main forces had already left the battlefield?
Relying on pirates was more than unwise.
They'd surrender the moment they realized they faced destruction at the hands of the Alliance or the Dominion.
That only meant both Inquisitors could end up pinned from two sides.
Capture was not an option.
They knew too much.
Their mission was too valuable.
"The best option would be to negotiate with the Alliance to join forces and defeat the Dominion," Kyrisa said meaningfully. "Then we'd have a chance to break through. If they at least destroy the nearest Interdictor."
"Don't talk nonsense," Cha snapped. "The rebels won't negotiate with those they consider weak. They'd rather help the Dominion kill the pirates and take us prisoner. We'll get out on our own. Contact the pirates — tell them to attack the Interdictor. I don't care how many die. We have to survive and get out of here."
He spun around and strode toward the hangars, where a few combat-ready ships still remained after their landing.
The Dathomirian witch looked at the boarding troops who had scattered at Cha's approach, cowardly pressed against the walls.
Then she pulled out her comlink...
* * *
The hangar of the Alliance battle cruiser looked like a hurricane had passed through.
Bodies hacked to pieces and charred by Force Lightning, damaged aircraft, signs of battle...
And dozens of enemy fighters.
The Fourth Special Squad of assault commandos began acting the moment the boarding ramp touched the deck plating, scarred by blaster hits.
Sergeant TNX-0333 rolled out of the line of fire, drawing the attention of enemy gunners, and took cover behind the half-wrecked hull of an X-wing whose landing gear had been shot off.
And whose cockpit (along with the pilot) had been cleaved in half.
That cover would do for now.
Enemy fighters fired at him, but as soon as the rest of the troopers poured from the other hatches, the pirates had bigger concerns.
With loud metallic clicks and the sound of rolling, droidekas spread through the hangar.
Three other assault commandos fired precisely, taking out enemy shooters.
The guardsmen charged through, killing pirates with accurate, economical blaster shots.
The onslaught of soldiers in black-and-blue armor was so overwhelming that the clash had already turned into hand-to-hand combat.
TNX-0333, realizing he was no longer under fire, peered out from behind cover, assessing the situation with his own eyes, not relying on data from his squad's visual systems.
And it was a good thing he did.
A Rodian with a heavy repeater jumped out from behind the X-wing's fusion engine nozzles, right at him.
Both opponents began aiming at each other.
A violet energy blade cut through the Rodian's weapon along with his forearms.
TNX-0333's blaster carbine put an extra hole in his skull — one not provided for by physiology.
Thrawn's Hand advanced like lightning, deflecting blaster bolts fired at him and periodically returning fire with his own blaster, thinning the enemy ranks.
The Sergeant suppressed two enemies with covering fire, forcing them to take cover behind a shipping container.
Then he leaped onto it in a burst of speed and killed both with two precise shots.
Jumping down and taking cover, he activated a thermal detonator and threw it toward another enemy's position.
Forcing them to go to ground.
He himself popped out after the explosion and charged toward the chosen enemy.
The first one to show himself from behind the container barricade got a shot to the head.
The second — an elbow to the face that knocked him to the floor, followed by a couple of finishing shots.
Immediately, a volley came at him, and he took cover behind a stack of crates.
The special squad fighters signaled that more and more enemy units were arriving in the hangar.
The Delta was supporting the Dominion landing force with its cannons, but in one moment the ship simply exploded, showering the attacking ranks with a rain of fire and shrapnel.
On his visor, the indicators for two of his squad's fighters went dark — meaning their deaths.
TNX-0333 only had time to blink when the indicator for Sniper, his last man, also disappeared.
Peeking out from behind the crates, he saw that besides the Syndicate infantry, two more beings had appeared in the hangar — a man and a woman — with crimson lightsabers in their hands.
The Inquisitors, who needed to be captured.
They engaged three guardsmen, one of whom had a cage with ysalamiri behind him.
The crimson blades went out after attempting to strike the elite soldiers with lightsabers.
But at the same time, the pale-faced woman with Dathomirian tattoos on her face used her vibro-axe as a primary weapon, piercing one of the guardsmen's chests.
And she killed the lizard in a flash, obviously understanding the threat it posed to the Inquisitors.
Her partner immediately struck the other two guardsmen with Force Lightning, throwing them backward.
Then, using the Force, he lifted and smashed several nearby droidekas against the walls.
The initiative had shifted to the enemy.
TNX-0333, without a second thought, activated a second thermal detonator and threw it toward the pair.
At the same moment, the nearest droideka opened fire on them with its cannons.
The woman caught the charge in midair and hurled it at the battle droid, but the grenade just bounced off its shield.
For that kind of operation, a bit of velocity was needed to penetrate the energy barrier.
TNX-0333 saw a violet blade and its wielder rushing toward the Inquisitors.
The Sergeant instantly assessed the potential threat to the Hand from rank-and-file enemy soldiers.
A Nautolan who tried to shoot the woman in the back was put down by the Sergeant with a precise shot to the temple.
Next, he cut down a grenadier with a short burst.
The carbine beeped, indicating the energy cell was depleted.
The Sergeant tossed the weapon aside and drew blaster pistols from paired thigh holsters.
Suppressing a chosen target with fire, he made a short dash to new cover.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the male Inquisitor crushing several guardsmen — who had tried to attack him — under the wreckage of the X-wing that the assault commando had recently hidden behind.
His brain automatically noted that the Inquisitor was more dangerous than anticipated.
He knew perfectly well that the Guardsmen were vulnerable to Force attacks, but judging by the fact that he began retreating as soon as Lieutenant Colonel Tierce attacked him with a cortosis blade, he was aware of their lethal danger in close combat.
Grenades whistling overhead caught several droidekas while they were moving in wheel form.
Shrapnel killed another Guardsman, tearing off his skull.
TNH-0333 did not let that go unanswered.
He left cover and, firing with both hands, killed both grenadiers, shooting the weapon out of one of their hands.
The explosion killed both operators and several soldiers standing nearby.
TNH-0333 focused on eliminating the enemy infantry.
He remembered his experience fighting a Force-user on Mustafar very well and accepted the fact that he was useless in this battle.
And so he did what he did best.
He destroyed the enemy he could handle.
* * *
Mara felt a searing cold as she ran past a Force-suppression zone emanating from one of the Guardsmen running to help Tierce.
With a quick glance she spotted four other destroyed cages and dead Guardsmen.
If not for the large size of the lizards and their cages, there would have been a chance to equip all Guardsmen with them.
But as it was, they were useless in battle.
The last ysalamiri carrier dropped his cage behind one of the mangled crates and hurried to help the Lieutenant Colonel.
Logically sound decision — in battle, Guardsmen need to be mobile to oppose the Inquisitor.
But the fact that they would have to make an effort to keep Namman Cha within the ysalamiri's small field of effect...
That was already a problem.
She wholeheartedly wished the Guardsmen luck.
She herself turned to the witch, who was looking straight at her with a smug smirk.
"The red-haired traitor is alive," the Dathomirian's voice dripped with contempt and anticipation of battle.
"Envy in silence," Mara parried, beginning her attack.
The witch lunged forward, attacking with both a vibro-axe and a lightsaber, which caught the girl off guard.
Rolling to the side at the last second, she parried a slashing strike at her neck, while her opponent's lightsaber carved a deep furrow in the spot where she had been standing.
So after the encounter with cortosis, her weapon had recovered.
Unpleasant, but a fact.
Mara counterattacked, slashing low at the Dathomirian's legs.
She parried the strike; their blades met with sparks and a hum.
Almost without realizing it, Mara performed a backflip, dodging a vibro-axe swing aimed at her torso.
And at the same time, she gleefully slammed her foot into her opponent's face.
A swift flurry forced her back.
Mara executed a feint, pretending to attack, then took a step back, creating enough space between them.
Her opponent, with a bleeding nose and split lips, looked menacing.
She had just enough time to extend her hand toward an unsuspecting pirate who was about to shoot Thrawn's Hand in the back.
Snatching him up with the Force, she hurled him at her opponent with such force that the woman, not expecting it, flew several meters back, slammed into a dented transport container, deforming it even more.
With a growl, the Dathomirian began to rise.
The stunned pirate did too.
But before he could get up, the Inquisitor slashed his neck backhandedly, ending the Weequay's life.
Mara barely registered his death before her opponent had already pounced on her, raining down a hail of blows.
For a moment, Mara felt that the other woman was weaker than her, but at the same moment a wave of rage emanating from the Dathomirian nearly knocked her off her feet.
She had to perform acrobatic stunts again.
For which she paid with a thigh wound from the vibro-axe.
Landing on her feet, Jade used telekinesis to throw the nearest debris under her opponent's feet, but the woman jumped over it, pushing off hard from the hangar floor.
"Fly, you painted bitch!" Mara channeled the Force through her hands, sending the wretch flying with a satisfyingly furious scream.
At the same time, she felt another Guardsman's life end and rushed to help.
"Clones!" the Inquisitor roared, kicking the headless warrior's body away from himself. "I hate clones! You're all dust under my feet! I'll destroy you all!"
She knew that.
Namman Cha.
A dark Jedi who believed he could become a Sith Lord.
To that end, even though he carried out his assigned role as a conduit of the Emperor's will, he was still suspected by the latter of seeking and pocketing ancient Jedi relics.
In the past, Mara had prepared for the possibility that she might be tasked with eliminating him.
But it never happened.
Merciless, ruthless, wielding not only standard primary weaponry but also a shoto—a lightsaber with a short blade.
Watching how easily Cha was destroying Guardsmen—who, mind you, were clones of Tierce and therefore trained to protect the Emperor—the girl felt not a shred of regret that she had never faced this killer face-to-face while she served Palpatine.
"And here I am!" Mara shouted, distracting Cha, who had raised his blade over another Guardsman whose arm he had just cut off.
The dark Jedi reacted to her appearance, turned—and received a kick from a fragile girl weighing just over fifty kilograms who had built up great speed.
It was like jumping feet-first into an empty pool.
With the exception that she didn't break anything, fell to the floor, and the giant staggered back.
And immediately swung his blades at her.
Mara managed to bring her sword up to parry, blocking his strike.
And at that same moment, Lieutenant Colonel Tierce drove a cortosis sword into the dark Jedi's thigh, breaking his bones.
Cha roared like an enraged raknor.
He tried to elbow Tierce in the face, but only got his arms grabbed around his own neck.
The crimson blades shot into the air.
As did an obsidian dagger in the hand of a wounded Guardsman.
The black super-dense glass instantly cut through the armor on his forearms and severed muscles.
Both lightsabers fell uselessly to the floor.
The second strike hit the other thigh, after which the one-armed Guardsman punched Cha in the torso.
Forced to his knees with horrific wounds, Cha knocked the one-armed Guardsman to the floor with a swing of his arms and threw Tierce over himself.
Mara felt that rage filled him with enough strength to overcome pain and discomfort.
He called his lightsabers to his hands and attacked Tierce with a series of brutal, desperate strikes.
Completely forgetting that the Guardsmen were wearing cortosis armor.
His blades went out.
Mara, back on her feet, jumped up and kicked him in the broad chin, breaking his jaw.
Then, landing on Tierce's chest plate, she spun and kicked him from the side.
Cha caught her leg and easily tossed her aside like a tiny animal.
From the impact against the wall, sparks and tears burst from Mara's eyes, and the air left her lungs.
It felt like someone had rung a bell in her head, but that didn't stop her from dodging the lightsaber thrown at her.
Rolling, the girl activated her own weapon, watching as Cha, with Grodin and the wounded Guardsman hanging on him, breaking his arms with joint locks, slowly rose from his knees.
With a cortosis sword and an obsidian blade still in his thighs.
"Damn you," Mara forced out through clenched teeth, lunging into the attack. "Are you even human?!"
"Kyrisa!!! Help!!!" Cha roared.
And at the last moment she had to flatten herself against the floor to avoid a chunk of X-wing engine thrown at her.
Rising, she crossed blades with Kyrisa, who had appeared from nowhere and unleashed a series of powerful strikes on the red-haired beast.
Staggering back, Mara was too distracted and failed to notice Namman striking at her with a crackling bolt of blue lightning.
At the last second she twisted out of Kyrisa's attack string, stepped back, and caught the potentially lethal bolt with her lightsaber blade, absorbing its energy.
This was more instinct, a last resort that left her vulnerable to a single swift thrust from Kyrisa.
The lightsaber blade burned her left shoulder, and her arm went numb almost instantly.
Howling in pain, Mara parried a lightsaber strike, dodged a vibro-axe thrust.
"I'll bring the Emperor your head on a platter!" the Dathomirian witch hissed in her face. "But first I'll devour your brains!"
"Get a new dietitian, you ugly hag!" Mara shot back, unceremoniously hitting the witch with Force Lightning.
The witch repeated her maneuver, but Jade had been counting on that.
She ducked under the witch's legs, spun around, barely got behind her, and executed a leg sweep.
Seeing Kyrisa fall, Jade jumped to her feet.
The one-armed Guardsman lay on the floor with his throat torn out.
Cha was fighting with his sliced limbs just as deftly as if he had never been wounded.
Grodin had taken the fallen comrade's cortosis blade and attacked the Inquisitor.
Both blades went out, after which Tierce rewarded him with two cuts across the chest and slashed his left arm.
With his right, Cha snatched up the vibro-axe thrown by Kyrisa and continued attacking with it.
Tierce went on the defensive.
And Mara, seizing the moment, shoved Cha into the Force-suppression zone. The one created by the last ysalamiri.
And almost immediately, Tierce began to lead the fight, inflicting even more wounds on Cha.
Mara would have watched longer, but she was distracted by the Dathomirian witch's lightsaber.
Deflecting it aside, Jade used her favorite move to kick her in the head, but the witch seemed not to notice.
Or maybe there was nothing there to damage.
The witch was accumulating the Force within herself and simply charged ahead, raining one blow after another on the red-haired beast.
Mara switched fully to defense, inwardly hoping that the remaining Guardsmen and droidekas behind her would keep the pirates so busy that no blaster bolt would hit her in the back of the head.
The girl backed away, starting to circle the hangar, occasionally throwing some debris at the witch.
The witch moved forward like a droid, heedless of the path.
At some point Mara realized that this was actually the case.
The Dathomirian witch had focused all her attention on her.
For her, the world around no longer existed.
Which meant...
"Tunnel vision is for idiots," Jade said mockingly, stepping back instead of attacking, breaking the distance between them by a couple of meters.
The witch, not expecting this, instinctively deflected a blaster bolt fired by Mara from her hold-out blaster.
Then another.
Another.
Another.
Kyrisa began to retreat under the hail of blaster fire.
She parried them aside, not even trying to reflect them back at Jade.
She simply didn't know how to do it at such close range.
Mara, however, wouldn't let her catch her breath or think of a tactic.
And after the next shot, she hit her with Force Lightning.
Adding a telekinetic push to it.
The first, as she had predicted, Kyrisa deflected with her lightsaber.
But the second knocked her backward.
A crimson lightsaber blade shot into the air, disappearing with a hiss.
Reaching the apex of its flight, it changed its falling trajectory and landed in Mara's other hand.
The girl winced for a moment, sensing the stench of the Dark Side saturating the crystals inside the trophy.
Her left arm barely obeyed and ached unbearably.
Mara channeled the Force into it to suppress the maddening sensations and keep from passing out.
But she did not deviate from her plan.
She rushed toward her opponent, who had just gotten to her feet.
Two slashes each from the crimson and violet blades—and clean cuts appeared in the muscles on Kyrisa's legs and arms.
With a curse, she collapsed to the floor, unable to move or even get up.
Mara, biting her lower lip until it bled, rushed toward Cha and Tierce, who were fighting a dozen meters away.
The giant had already killed the ysalamiri, but still hadn't restored his blades' functionality, fighting with the vibro-axe.
Tierce, in battered armor and with a dozen wounds, continued fighting, but was obviously running out of steam.
Triumph of the impending kill gleamed in Cha's eyes.
He was confident, as every dark Jedi is...
And Mara was confident that every Force adept who had turned his life into a cult could not conceive of killing without a lightsaber.
"Cha! Catch!" five meters from the Inquisitor, Mara threw Kyrisa's sword at him with all the strength her injured left arm could muster. "Widen your stance, Tierce!"
The hilt flew crookedly, off to the side, and the Inquisitor was momentarily distracted, trying to make visual contact with the object.
That was enough for Mara to duck between Tierce's legs and strike with her own lightsaber.
Namman Cha's arms, severed at the elbow and still holding the vibro-axe, fell to the floor.
The girl jumped to her feet behind the crippled dark Jedi, who was staring in shock at his stumps.
"That's for the Guardsmen, you scum!" with undisguised pleasure, she kicked the Inquisitor in the kidneys as hard as she could.
At that very moment, a cry came from Namman.
The first cry would have been followed by a second (he did have two kidneys), but Tierce knocked him unconscious with an elbow to the jaw and injected a dose of tranquilizer into his neck with a pneumatic syringe.
And only then did the Guardsman collapse to his knees, exhausted.
"Tierce, Tierce," Mara, realizing that the droidekas and Guardsmen had pushed the enemy back to the hangar entrances and taken up defensive positions there, grabbed the Guardsman commander. "Just try to die, you bastard!"
The helmet flew aside, and the girl slapped the Lieutenant Colonel, whose eyes were starting to roll back, across the cheeks to bring him around.
"Don't you pass out, soldier!" she barked in his face. "Three holes in the chest are no reason to die!"
A chuckle escaped the Lieutenant Colonel's lips, which was immensely relieving but also puzzled Mara.
"Hand..." he rasped. "I only now understood the true purpose of the Imperial Guard."
"Protect Palpatine," Mara answered automatically, glancing around the battlefield. "No offense, Lieutenant Colonel, but you're kind of falling short when it comes to fighting Force-wielding opponents... If the Jedi had known that by attacking Palpatine in your presence they could kill you all... the Empire would have fallen much sooner."
Grodin gave her a cheerful look.
Mara felt uneasy.
"We wouldn't have held out anyway," he said. "We weren't trained to protect and eliminate Jedi threats... We were trained to die in Palpatine's place, to give him time to escape... And I was a fool, thinking we were a real force against Force-users..."
With these words, the Lieutenant Colonel lost consciousness.
Mara, considering what Tierce had said, shuddered.
He was right...
Palpatine didn't need protection from Jedi—he had other tools for eliminating them.
And he himself was no pushover...
He simply surrounded himself with suicide soldiers, instilling in them the belief that they could do something against his real enemies.
She felt utterly wretched.
After all, they had instilled in her too that she could do something.
And then Winter had thrashed her in the Imperial Palace library.
"You wrinkled asshole, you fooled everyone with the same scheme," Jade spat angrily, carefully laying the unconscious Lieutenant Colonel on the hangar floor and pulling out her comlink. "Well, Palpatine, you son..."