Ten years, four months, and sixteen days after the Battle of Yavin...
Or the forty-fifth year, fourth month, and sixteenth day after the Great Resynchronization.
(One year and thirty-one days since the Arrival.)
"..Not that he's really bothering me, or trying to turn me to the Dark Side, but his knowledge..." the Togruta chattered cheerfully, seated at a table across from Mara.
The red-haired girl glanced sideways at an imposing man with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache, whose dark mane seemed blacker than black itself.
He was clad from head to toe in black robes, and his gaze was so empty and indifferent that it caused a hollow feeling in the pit of one's stomach from the awareness of one's own insignificance.
She wondered what impression Darth Vectivus had made on those around him when he was alive.
"He's a Sith, by the way," Mara reminded. "They're permanently inclined to turn their followers to the Dark Side of the Force."
The Force Ghost let out a low chuckle.
"Is that why you drifted near my asteroid for so long?" he asked.
His voice was low, commanding, and authoritative.
And full of irony.
"Afraid my knowledge would lead you to the Dark Side of the Force?" he clarified for the red-haired beauty.
"I was sizing up how best to blow your lair to pieces if I needed to extract Ahsoka by force," Mara replied with an unreadable expression and a cocky smirk.
"Youth always goes hand in hand with maximalism," a sigh of regret came from the Ghost. "That very impossible and frankly incorrect behavior of most humanoid races, which year after year pushes the galaxy deeper into the abyss of lawlessness and chaos."
"Right into the arms of the Sith, isn't it?" Jade squinted, not taking her eyes off the dead Sith Lord.
"Those adherents of the Dark Side teachings who seek only destruction are doomed to a fate more terrible than they can imagine," the Sith declared.
"Who better than you to know," Mara snorted. "I'm sure you died right during an attempted local coup d'état. And some bounty hunter or sacrificial Jedi killed you, which is why there's not even a mention of you left."
Provocation was the best way to get an opponent confident in their superiority talking.
And were there beings in the galaxy more arrogant and presumptuous than Sith Lords?
Perhaps only dead Sith Lords.
"Mara," the former Jedi called out to her cautiously.
"Maybe that's what happened to me back when I existed in flesh and bone," the long-dead Dark Lord of the Sith said as if nothing had happened. "I don't remember."
"Posthumous amnesia?" continued Thrawn's Hand, pressing on vulnerabilities. "Oh, how convenient..."
"Convenience is what we live for," the Ghost of Darth Vectivus replied calmly. "Sometimes it's for convenience that new machines are created, and long-known scientific theories and technologies are applied. Comfort is what makes us weak. Comfort and lack of self-control. My apprentice can tell you a lot about that."
Then he turned his head, looking at the silent Togruta, who was staring at Mara disapprovingly.
"I will be in the mines awaiting your return to your studies, my apprentice," he said.
With those words, the Force Ghost dissolved into a dark suspension and faded away inside the ship.
"Just as I suspected — he bailed as soon as things got 'hot,'" Mara declared victoriously, meeting Ahsoka's gaze. "A typical Sith. It's time for you to get out of here."
The Togruta just shook her head negatively, clearly not approving of her friend's impulse.
"You're wrong, Mara," she stated. "Vectivus, though a Sith in life, was not an ordinary Sith."
"Yeah, I know one who tells his followers that mass murder is for the good of the galaxy," Jade said. "And I doubt he abandoned his philosophy after death."
"We're talking about Vectivus, not Palpatine," Tano reminded, setting priorities.
"Is there a difference?" the red-haired beast was surprised, disagreeing with her interlocutor's assessment of the situation.
"I think there is," the Togruta nodded slowly, thinking over her words. "At least because Vectivus didn't die in a struggle for power. And not at the hands of Jedi."
"Poisoned by his own students?"
"He died of old age," Tano stated in a stern tone. "Surrounded by his loved ones and relatives."
"Is that what he said?"
"His family's holoarchives," Tano explained. "There are quite a lot of them here, in the living quarters of the management personnel. I take it that's where he lived with his family. I review them between lessons. And there are recordings he made personally. Something like a journal of the study of the Force. There's not a word about megalomania, a desire to oppress others, and so on. On the contrary, when he realized what he was dealing with on this asteroid, he evacuated the personnel, simulated the destruction of the mining colony, and changed its orbit so that no one could stumble upon it, even by accident."
"Didn't it occur to you that all those holo-journals might be forgeries?" Mara asked sharply, having had some experience in falsifying various kinds of evidence during her service to the Empire.
The Togruta shook her head.
"The joy on the faces of his family members can't be faked, Jade," she said dryly. "Vectivus truly wasn't a tyrant. A Sith who controlled his ambitions, desires, and abilities — yes. But not a power-hungry maniac who walked over corpses."
"Need I remind you that you're a Jedi?" Mara asked. "And Jedi destroy Sith based solely on their use of the Dark Side and communion with ancient forbidden teachings?"
"It's been a long time," the Togruta smiled. "And you've apparently forgotten that I'm not a Jedi. And the Light Side of the Force isn't my only weapon. But, you know, you're right. Jedi have destroyed and will destroy Sith. However, if the Dark Side were represented by people like Darth Vectivus, and not mad maniacs like Palpatine, we definitely wouldn't be experiencing one crisis after another due to religious reasons."
"That sounds like he's already recruited you," Mara stated disapprovingly.
"I'm learning from him," Ahsoka spread her hands. "Along with knowledge, he imparts his philosophy to me. His views on things. And he's literally obsessed with me never losing control of myself. You know, he once made me repeat all the self-control exercises for two weeks when I got carried away and nearly destroyed one of the caves below us with Force Lightning. And he didn't say another word to me until I regained control of myself and understood how to break the vicious cycle: emotions fuel the Dark Side, and it fuels emotions. And so on ad infinitum. I'll tell you right away, it's oh-so not easy. Even with his explanations, some key points I have to figure out on my own. It's like I'm a youngling again and an instructor at the Jedi Temple gave me a philosophy homework assignment."
"I think if Grand Master Yoda heard that, he'd start spinning in the Force so fast that if you threw a couple of highly conductive wires at him, you could power a Death Star from the master," Mara commented on her friend's words. "I feel sick..."
"I'm not imposing my point of view," the Togruta reminded. "And I'm not saying it's the only correct one. It's just that what Vectivus talks about resonates with me. I think back to my time as a Padawan and think that if Anakin Skywalker had taught me that way, then..."
"I'm about to vomit," Mara warned.
"Maybe if he had been taught more comprehensively, understanding the peculiarities of his age and mindset..."
"Well, bantha poodoo!" Jade shouted, pressing her hands to her mouth and darting towards the refresher.
Bursting into the cramped stall, she barely managed to lean over the toilet when her lunch, along with breakfast, asked to come out in a friendly group with a taste of stomach acid.
"What's wrong with you?" came the genuinely worried voice of the Togruta behind her.
"A completely normal reaction from a healthy person to talk about good Sith," Jade managed to rattle off before being torn apart by internal contradictions again.
"Strange," Ahsoka's voice sounded puzzled. "I understand you have your own attitude towards Sith, but to the point of..."
"They're already in my liver!" Jade announced. "I can't even eat when I hear about them..."
And again, the attack on the chromed metal of one of the most important parts of the private ship repeated.
"So this isn't the first time?" Tano inquired, her voice sounding surprised and focused.
"It started recently," Mara replied. "About a week and a half ago, when I checked the entire system and..."
She didn't get to finish.
Ahsoka, squeezing into the stall, carefully gathered her friend's disheveled hair at the back of her head.
"Well, that's shit," Mara forced out. "I'm going to tell Thrawn exactly what I think of his idea of giving me this ship. The atmosphere in here is nauseating. I just want to turn myself inside out..."
"Oh," Ahsoka smiled when Jade looked up at her. "'Tell Thrawn'... And when did you two become so close that you can openly unleash a torrent of indignation on the Grand Admiral without fear of the possible consequences?"
Mara wiped the remaining saliva from her face with the back of her hand, grimacing at the disgustingly annoying sour-bitter taste sensations that had taken over her mouth.
With feigned nonchalance, she tossed her hair back, carefully averting her gaze from the Togruta's probing eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "Just a figure of speech, nothing more. Of course I'm not going to say anything to him..."
Ahsoka, crouching down, just smiled when Mara deigned to look her in the eye.
"I'm not playing the mommy role, of course," she said. "But my heart, enslaved by the Dark Side of the Force, tells me that something has been added inside someone."
"What are you babbling about?" Mara frowned, getting to her feet and activating the refresher cycle.
"Joy, delight, and death to enemies," the Togruta, who was inexplicably amused, didn't hide her purpose, following the red-haired beast out of the refresher.
"What kind of stupid hints?" Mara snapped, taking a mouthful of water to get rid of the awful taste.
"Oh, they're not hints," Tano assured her. "Hints are: 'What does a human female start feeling four weeks after intimacy with her beloved man?' Clue number one. It requires the procedure of placing a part of a man inside a woman..."
"I'm going to hit you," Mara spat the water into the sink and shook a warning finger at the Togruta before taking another gulp.
"Clue number two," Ahsoka pressed on. "This phenomenon starts with 'P' and ends with 'regnancy'."
Jade spat the water out with a loud splash, drenching the Togruta standing in front of her.
"You do have a shower working on the ship, right?" Tano asked, wiping the moisture from her face with her hand.
"That's enough," Mara declared. "I just don't feel well. It's been the second week now. And if you're so curious, I was with Thrawn almost a month ago, so your mythical guesses are way off the mark."
"Well," Ahsoka said, casually wiping water from the corners of her eye sockets with a finger, "actually, I was just ribbing you. I've grown up, after all. But as for everything else..."
"Tell anyone and I'll carve your montrals out with a rusty knife," Jade warned.
"We, the apprentices of the Dark Lords of the Sith, know how to control ourselves," Ahsoka said with humorous significance in her voice. "And we've heard a thing or two about contraceptive rules..."
Jade clenched her fists so hard her knuckles cracked.
"I'm definitely going to hit you now," she said without a hint of a joke. "Probably with my foot. Guaranteed — right in the face."
Ahsoka shook her head, putting on a guilty smile that just made Jade want to clobber her.
"You can believe in your arithmetic all you want," she said. "But unlike you, I had a couple of Chiss Jedi acquaintances in the Order. One of them, Nuru Kungurama, used to say that members of his people mature twice as fast as ordinary humans. By the time he was ten, he was as developed as a twenty-year-old young man. And very, very clever..."
"What are you implying?" Mara darkened, feeling a sudden dryness in her mouth and trembling in her fingers.
"Well, you said it yourself," Ahsoka spread her hands. "Four weeks for ordinary women. Nuru said that with them, the Chiss, everything develops twice as fast... You catching my drift?"
Muttering curses, Jade rushed toward the ship's medical bay.
"I hope Eclipse and Marek had a need for this kind of test," she said, dumping the contents of a cabinet full of medications and diagnostic testers onto a bunk.
"As a student of a competent Sith, I can tell you that nothing will tell you what you want to know more accurately than the Force," Ahsoka said, appearing in the doorway of the med bay.
"What makes you think that?" Jade gave her a dark look.
"Well, would I have been needling you if I hadn't already scanned your body with the Force?" the Togruta asked.
"And?" Jade asked, her heart pounding.
Tano's face took on an expression of exhausted weariness, the kind a person gets when they hint and hint, then finally say it straight out, and they're still not being understood.
"Just stop being dense already!" she said, giving her friend a disapproving look. "Mara, you're pregnant!"
The next moment, the Togruta was already dodging a medical diagnostic tool thrown at her.
"I told you not to say it!" Jade shouted, bolting out of the bay and hurling a pack of Bacta patches after Ahsoka.
"There, there, there!" Tano wailed with laughter. "Mood swings have arrived with the package too. I'm absolutely dying to see how Thrawn manages to keep a straight face after news like this!"
"Where's my rusty vibroknife!?"
* * *
Once upon a time, Carannia was known for anything but being the heart of a rebellious conspiracy.
The capital of Serenno was famous throughout the galaxy first and foremost for its open markets, where goods from all corners of the galaxy could be found.
This was also where the aristocrats, renowned for their charitable activities, made their homes.
But Carannia was most famous for its anti-government sentiments, which no government in the galaxy had ever found the strength to eradicate.
The Empire came closest, executing the leaders of the noble and high-born Families.
But as in the past, this only smoothed over the general level of dissatisfaction with the galaxy's ruling elites, rather than solving the problem entirely.
Now, having executed a significant portion of the aristocratic families and intending to do the same to the remaining ones.
It was only logical that they decided to fight to the last.
How the enemy managed to conceal from the Empire the enormous war machine of the CIS, which had escaped the smelting furnaces, was anyone's guess.
But a fact remained a fact.
Carannia was literally flooded with relics from the Clone Wars era, built by the Confederacy's forces.
The first things the saboteurs saw when they reached the coastal strip of the capital were NR-N99 droid tanks, which the enemy had swarming the city's coastline, thereby controlling a potential breakthrough zone from the Belsallian Sea.
Clearly, the enemy had prepared defensive lines here as well, seeking to delay the occupation of the city by Dominion forces.
"When these machines fought on the side of the Corporate Alliance, competitors called them 'Persuaders,'" Proko said quietly, tracking the movement of the droid tank closest to the group.
NR-N99 Persuader-class droid tank.
"And why exactly that name?" Eles asked, watching the central tread of the combat machine churn the beach sand, moving the relic of a bygone era.
"Can't you figure it out?" Spar whispered. "When competitors don't take the hint to get out of the market, a landing force of these machines drops in, backed by battle droids, and poof — no more competitor."
"Persuasion of peace and submission under the muzzles of blaster cannons," the Quarren said meaningfully.
"Feels like they dug up a whole warehouse of Separatist junk somewhere," Mortok said with displeasure, pointing at another enemy combat machine. "An improved dwarf spider droid."
Improved dwarf spider droid.
"Worse and worse," Anilex grimaced. "Now it's clear why they've been keeping us from scouting. Looks like they've gathered the enemy's best weapon samples here. This A-DSD is an upgrade of the first series of similar combat machines. This model fixed two major shortcomings of its predecessor, the DSD-1 — weak armor and relatively weak armament. A heavy blaster cannon capable of penetrating light and medium armored vehicle armor, as well as firing at infantry concentrations. A grenade launcher as an effective anti-personnel weapon. Improved armor that protects the droid from small arms fire, and armored shields on the front legs make the machine invulnerable to most heavy weapons as well."
"Throw in the 'Muckrakers' too," Dersen said in an already deflated tone, pointing toward a four-legged droid resembling a crustacean moving across the sand, clearly acting as a patrol droid.
"Crab droids," Kida Proko's voice held a hint of anger. "And that's just what we can see on the coast!"
LM-432 crab droid, also known as the "Muckraker."
No further explanation was needed for anyone present — everything was clear without words.
The LM-432 droid was developed by the Techno Union, another corporate giant that had joined the Confederacy.
The combat machine began production during the Clone Wars and proved itself excellently.
The crab droid possessed superior cross-country capability, able to traverse almost any surface — even slippery ice, swamps, or vertical cliffs — and hold fast to it for any length of time. Combined with its small size, this allowed the LM-432 to be used for reconnaissance and sabotage operations on enemy territory.
There was only one way to defeat it on the battlefield — dodge its weapons and blast its vulnerable central section, just as the clones had done thirty years ago.
For the good of the entire galaxy, producing such machines was incredibly expensive, so they were never mass-produced.
But wherever they appeared, only mountains of corpses and a few destroyed units of equipment remained.
A searchlight beam flashed over the heads of the saboteurs hiding behind the curb of the embankment, its source just appearing between the buildings, hovering several dozen meters up.
Illuminating the embankment with its spotlights, the airborne armored vehicle began patrolling the part of the coast adjacent to the embankment, flying over even the tallest enemy combat machines.
"The last thing we needed was an HMP here!" Anilex hissed through his teeth.
Heavy Missile Platform.
Yet another legacy of the Clone Wars, this one represented an object of such a high danger level that it could hardly be underestimated.
The Heavy Missile Platform (HMP), sometimes also called the droid gunship, was remembered by Clone Wars participants as a powerful and reliable enemy assault craft.
Providing the CIS forces with fire support from the air during planetary battles, the HMP left no chance of survival for anyone who encountered it without suitable heavy weaponry.
The droid gunship's cannon armament commanded respect, consisting of five laser or blaster cannons of varying power and purpose.
For destroying lightly armored and unarmored enemy vehicles, a laser cannon mounted on a mobile carriage in the nose section of the hull was used.
The only good news about this weapon was its insufficient armor penetration and rate of fire, which reduced its effectiveness as an anti-infantry platform.
But the enemy had accounted for this as well, equipping the machine with two twin-linked laser or blaster cannons that had their own targeting systems and two guidance channels. This allowed the HMP to engage two groups of targets simultaneously.
Another two cannons were mounted on the wingtips of the droid gunship, but that didn't reduce their lethality.
Under its belly, the assault craft carried enough missile armament to scorch a small section of the frontline.
Objectively, considering everything they'd seen, it was impossible to delude oneself into thinking the coast was a good place for a landing.
None of those present could afford to deceive themselves, even to cheer each other up by claiming there was the slightest chance of breaking through the beach with their available forces.
A single HMP was enough to hover over the battlefield, raining fire on the enemy.
And the other droids were reliable backup in case the attackers had a large number of troops.
"We need to get out of here," Anilex declared, having assessed their current position, which was worsening by the moment. "We're sitting ducks here, out in the open."
"I'll agree with the captain," Mortok voiced his position. "What they have on the coast isn't proof that such powerful forces are deployed in the city."
"Do you believe that yourself?" the Mirialuka grinned.
Nevertheless, the group moved steadily along the embankment railing toward the sewer outlet leading to the sea.
The old city sewer system was no longer used, as all waste was processed in the latest molecular furnaces.
But that didn't mean this route couldn't be used to infiltrate any part of the city.
"Carannia is absolutely packed with battle droids," the Mirialuka whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Including the Mandalorians, the mercenaries, and the six Devaronian commandos following in lockstep behind their leaders.
"It's like we're back in the Clone Wars," the Quarren shook his head.
"You can say that again," another Jensaarai backed him up. "Still, how did the noble Families manage to keep such a large amount of Confederacy of Independent Systems combat equipment?"
"They bribed someone in the Empire," Mortok grumbled. "It's only in propaganda that they're all so pure of conscience in their gray uniforms, not a hint of bribe-taking."
"I doubt mentioning what the Imperials were like in the sector will help us," the Mandalorian leader cooled his comrade's ardor. "What worries me more is whether the Separatists left anything in the sewers for 'resourceful' saboteurs like us — something like sentry droids or mine traps. Judging by how they've fortified the coastal zone, they've prepared thoroughly."
"Tactical droids are characterized by consistency and logic," the Quarren said. "They believe in their own infallibility, but at the same time, their actions are easy to predict."
"Your speech didn't make me feel any better," Hedge Spar admitted. "Based on what you said, setting traps in the sewers is precisely the logical thing to do."
"I agree," Mortok responded. "If they're defending the approaches to the city so densely, it would be illogical to leave such a breach in the defense."
This observation made all the members of the sabotage group freeze in place.
The former Jedi exchanged glances, after which the Mirialuka began to "peer" into the space around them.
"And yet, I don't see a single droid there," Dersen said. "No changes to the layout, no movement. Just construction materials and nothing else."
"That makes me even more uneasy," the Mandalorian spoke up. "I don't believe in the enemy's stupidity. Especially one that's bloodied us twice in previous assaults."
"The other option is to sit and do nothing," Anilex chimed in. "Go back and wait until the droids rust and the population starts starving and decides to storm the enemy for us?"
"A stupid idea," Mortok said. "Serenno hasn't been in this situation for the first time. When they were clearing out the Separatists here after the Clone Wars, the aristocracy had already experienced something similar. After the Empire conquered the planet, they simply dug dozens of food and other supply depots beneath the city. Carannia can withstand a siege for years, and none of the residents would feel deprived."
"And the droids don't need to eat or sleep at all," Proko added. "Besides, the tactical droid has surely accounted for this kind of scenario too. The siege of objects protected by deflector shields is practically textbook tactics. Both sides used it successfully during the Clone Wars. And the attackers always took colossal losses, despite the small number of defenders."
"Is that so?" Hedge said skeptically. "So how did you win those kinds of battles?"
Proko looked at the Mandalorian with a careful gaze.
"In such cases, the Jedi went on sabotage missions," he explained quietly.
"And did it work?" Hedge asked.
"For the campaign — yes," the Quarren nodded slowly. "For most Jedi — no."
"Why is that?" Anilex asked.
"Most Jedi who went on sabotage missions never returned from them," Dersen explained.
An awkward silence fell over the fighters.
"You know," Hedge broke it, resuming movement toward the objective, "you Jensaarai gentlemen might want to work on your motivational speeches."
* * *
The battle for Carannia, the capital of Serenno, could be called a textbook military operation.
If you're looking at the enemy's actions, of course.
It took the standard twenty-four hours for me to be able to examine all the reports and objective control data related to the battles that had just raged on the planet.
And, I must admit, I cannot help but admire the thoroughness of the enemy commander's plans.
The standard goal of a defense is to prevent the capture of positions and the enemy's advance into controlled territory.
And experience shows that organic life forms do precisely that — they fight on the defensive.
This phenomenon can be explained from the standpoint of military necessity, strategically advantageous positioning, and the psychology of various races.
The common motivation for most humanoid races to defend a position they occupy — for example, a populated area — is their relationship to the territory.
If it's "foreign land," they'll treat it accordingly, without regard for consequences.
If it's "home territory," the defense will continue as long as the means and the will of higher command permit.
From the standpoint of Carannia's defense, there's a most curious causal element.
The technical preparation for the assault.
The enemy is using electronic warfare measures to prevent orbital scanning and precise targeting for both ground and shipboard weapons.
Therefore, we have to rely on ground-level objective control data from the mercenary units that have attacked the city twice.
And here's where we see the most interesting part.
The enemy approached fortifying the city's defenses according to all the rules for creating a fortified point.
Cover from orbital and aerial bombardment.
Means of destroying small aircraft, blocking the possibility of attack from fighters or bombers on structures within the city.
Numerous echeloned defensive lines saturated with super-heavy, long-range artillery, overlapping each other's fields of fire and pre-sighted kill zones.
At the same time, as observation shows, all of this — all these cannons, droids, assault platforms — all of it was in place before the Dominion forces landed on the planet's surface.
So the question arises: why, when defending other cities and settlements, did the enemy not use all the technical and military resources we've found at Carannia to hold the remaining territories of Serenno?
The answer lay in the question itself.
The enemy wasn't simply defending other metropolises and settlements with forces that lacked the same support and supply as the troops standing guard over the capital.
This was done deliberately.
Whoever was commanding the enemy forces was playing with us like it was a game of holochess.
Let us taste victory.
Allowed a simplistic defense tactic in two of the three metropolises on the planet, thereby psychologically signaling to our commanders that the capital city too could be taken by a sudden rush.
And then crushed them, demonstrating precisely the reason he had allowed the defending units in other parts of the planet to stand to the death for their home territories.
The enemy commander was setting a trap for us.
One after another.
Without pity, without regret, with cold mathematical and psychological calculation.
Aware that he could not win, the enemy commander nevertheless acted with high efficiency.
Which in turn raised the question of the expediency of such a defense — to the last defender.
The enemy seems to be constantly trying to provoke us into having Carannia wiped off the face of the planet with a massive orbital bombardment, following the heavy losses from previous assaults.
They were literally offering us the option to destroy the capital and end the siege of the planet as quickly as possible.
Quite...
Interesting.
And I know only one type of opponent that will move toward its goal with such icy mathematical precision, indifferent to the number of destroyed units and the consequences of a crater in place of a galaxy-famous populated area.
Let us assume that this is the case, and the Dominion is facing a tactical droid, a universal commander from the Clone Wars era.
One that caused problems for both the fleet and army units of the Old Republic.
And now it is opposing me.
Most likely — not alone.
Because the analysis of the defense of the other two metropolises on the planet, while revealing a commonality in defensive plans, still had a number of peculiarities.
Minor, almost imperceptible.
Like brushstrokes on an artist's painting.
And yet, they existed.
Which gave me reason to believe that not just one tactical droid is fighting the Dominion on Serenno.
And if that's the case, the situation takes on a rather serious turn.
The enemy is using all its strength and capabilities to make us destroy the city.
The enemy needs an orbital bombardment to ensure that all traces of its existence are destroyed.
Consequently, the enemy plans to escape the planet and arrange things so that it disappears from our field of view.
After all, after an orbital bombardment, nothing will remain.
Except for a surviving tactical super-droid, which clearly has a plan for how to leave Serenno without being detected.
"An interesting approach," I concluded, activating my comlinks. "Captain Pellaeon, begin landing the 501st Legion at a safe distance from the enemy positions. Including the support droids."
"Understood, sir."
Well, then. Tactical droid.
You played with us; now we'll play with you.
With all of you, to be precise.
* * *
Slicing through the old grates on the sewer pipes — each one as tall as a person — with a lightsaber was hardly any trouble for either of the former Jedi.
Neither was continuing the journey through the empty sewer collectors, delving deeper into the underground of Carannia.
The saboteurs covered several kilometers through the capital's underground without encountering the slightest resistance.
And that made Hedge even more wary.
His men too.
Mandalorians never count on their enemy's stupidity — that's an unwritten rule passed down from generation to generation.
A Mandalorian seeks battle with the strongest foe, because victory over the weak is not a triumph.
Defeating a fool is no great honor.
Defeating an equal or a superior in strength, skill, or resources — that is the victory a Mandalorian needs.
At least the ones who lived on Kol Atorn and now served the Dominion.
A good fight is always prized among those who hold to the ancestors' precepts, rather than slobbering and sniveling over how the most battle-ready people in the galaxy turned into puny pacifists, the sight of whom is sickening without pain in the eyes.
And so far, setting aside the bitterness of losing close friends and acquaintances, the Mandalorians from Kol Atorn had nothing to complain about when it came to the lack of good battles.
Heavy losses in the D'Astan sector would soon be offset by the youth training under experienced instructors on the homeworld of the Mandalorian exiles.
But this —
"That can't be!" Hedge snapped bitterly as their group approached the sorting manifold, intending to climb to the surface from there using the technical tunnels leading into the old building that handled purification work. "Not a single ambush! Maybe we shouldn't worry at all and just go kill the tactical droid, huh?"
"And you'd prefer to meet resistance at every step?" Dersen inquired.
"In that case, I'd be less sure this was a trap," the Mandalorian declared.
For a few seconds, the former Jedi and the leader of the warriors from Kol Atorn locked eyes in stubbornness.
"Has that Jedi foresight finally kicked in?" the Miraluka asked in an innocent tone.
"I'd explain it to you the old Mandalorian way, but we don't beat up on the visually impaired," Hedge shot back.
"Say that to my lightsaber," the Jensaarai with the face scarf snarled.
"Any time." Hedge drew a combat knife from the sheath on his forearm, settling into a fighting stance.
He knew perfectly well that none of his men would interfere without an order.
To do otherwise would be a breach of warrior honor.
The mercenaries and Devaronians likewise tried to pretend the whole thing had nothing to do with them.
The situation displeased absolutely everyone.
Except the former Jedi.
"Stop it!" Anilex ordered, stepping between the two heated men. "We're on the same side! The last thing we need is to —"
"I think it's time we called a halt," Qid Proko ordered, planting himself in front of his comrade and nudging him away from the Mandalorian with a muscular arm. "We'll definitely meet the enemy on the surface, and it's better to do that rested, and —"
The Jensaarai froze, as if listening to something.
The Miraluka, meanwhile, tilted his head, as if trying to see something above the saboteurs.
"The droids are moving," he said. "Something's wrong... They were patrolling the area, but now they've stopped — motionless, as if..."
The next moment, the ceiling above the saboteurs exploded, raining tons of duracrete down on their heads, mixing with plasma from artillery shells and the shrieking of mortars.