🛡️ This is the Way.
══════════════════════════════════════════════
╔════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ⚔️ MANDALORIAN CONTRACT BOARD ⚔️ ║
╠════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ Objective: Launch the story into hyperspace ║
║ Reward: Extra chapters for the crew ║
╠════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ Review Bounties: ║
║ • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = +1 bonus chapter ║
║ • ⭐⭐⭐⭐ + ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = +1 bonus chapter ║
╠════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ 2–3 lines is enough: ║
║ • "I loved ___ because…" ║
║ • "Best scene so far was…" ║
║ • "My theory is…" ║
╠════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ Thank you for backing Max Vizsla and the ║
║ rise of Mandalore. ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════╝
This is the Way.
With a dull "thump," Max tossed the Nite Owl corpse—its neck half gone—into the stairwell entrance. Then he leaned out from behind the pillar again, trying to spot the blaster the Nite Owl had dropped.
At that moment, a massive sense of danger slammed into him. Max snapped back into cover. In the next second, he saw several dark objects arc in through the windows to the right of the main doors.
Thermal grenades!
In that critical instant, Max shoved both palms forward with everything he had. The Force surged—and, for reasons known only to his inner drama addict, he mentally barked: "Cloud-Dispelling Palm!" The grenades in his sightline were blasted away.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!…
The chain of explosions—one setting off another—hit with an earthshaking roar.
Something he'd always dismissed as "just a loud pop" suddenly showed its teeth. Without beskar armor, and without having learned a Force barrier, thermal grenades were no joke at all.
The sudden flare of light in the night blinded Max instantly. On his left—his blind side—grenades tossed in from the main doors and the left side detonated at close range. The shockwave and the thunderclap left his ears ringing into nothingness, his hearing collapsing as his insides throbbed with dull pain.
Having just thrown out "Cloud-Dispelling Palm," Max followed with another ridiculous move name—"Wind-God Kick." He drove his legs into the floor, and with adrenaline and the Force working in lockstep, he launched himself hard toward the stairwell entrance.
…
"Thermals—down!" // "Contact behind the west windows!"
Seeing their grenades caught and thrown back, the Nite Owls Four element—attacking from the west—shouted warnings.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!…
Against beskar, thermal grenades were at most a distraction. The returned grenades only slowed the Nite Owls' advance for a heartbeat.
As the first wave of blasts faded, the Nite Owls concentrated fire on the west-side window line. Backpack missiles, more thermal grenades, and blaster rifles switched to burst mode—yellow and red bolts poured in a storm.
Under the combined battering of high-energy explosives and particle fire, the banquet hall's west wall collapsed within minutes, leaving only a few load-bearing structures struggling to hold up the roof.
"Cease fire," Bo-Katan Kryze ordered over comms. "Breach and clear."
"Copy."
In the black night, the blue-and-black beskar-clad Nite Owls moved like ghosts. Covering one another, they pushed into the hall in a methodical search.
"Uh—what's that?" A forward scout reported. "Lead, Katrina's body is in the center of the hall. Armor and gear are missing."
"Don't approach. Watch for traps," Bo-Katan said coldly. "Use a whipcord thrower to bind her and drag her out."1
"Copy."
BOOM!
As expected—there was a booby trap under Katrina's body. The instant the corpse shifted, a thermal grenade detonated. Katrina's head was blown apart, fragments splattering up to the ceiling.
"Lead…"
"I saw it." Bo-Katan's whole body trembled. She was beyond anger now—past rage into something colder and worse. "Find them. Kill them all."
…
Christopher hadn't been trying to desecrate a body or provoke anyone. He'd simply hidden a thermal-grenade booby trap at the Nite Owl's waist.
But it wasn't truly instantaneous. When the corpse was dragged, the trigger engaged—then, roughly half a second later, after the body had moved some distance, the grenade went off. By sheer bad luck, at the moment of detonation, the corpse's head had been pulled directly over the blast.
Because of the earlier explosions, Max's eardrums had ruptured—his hearing was almost completely gone. His vision, after a brief blank-out, had partially returned; he wasn't fully blind.
Worst of all, his Force perception had nearly failed—his physical state was wrecking his focus.
Still, when the booby trap detonated, the tidal wave of fury and killing intent rolling off Bo-Katan and the others gave Max a clean fix on their position, even with damaged senses.
He took the last two grenades, set both to a five-second delay, thumbed the triggers, and used the Force to send them curving into the hall—aimed at the densest pocket of negative emotion.
…
"Lead!" // "Heads up!"
Two thermal grenades came in from the direction of the main doors. In a split-second reaction, two Nite Owls threw themselves onto Bo-Katan, shielding her with their bodies.
BOOM!
Both grenades detonated together, blasting Bo-Katan and her two shields off their feet.
"Lead!" // "Fire! South—main doors!"
Another storm of rockets and blaster fire followed. At the main entrance, rubble, debris, and severed fragments were thrown into the air.
"Cough—cough… I'm fine—"
BOOM!!!
A larger explosion cut Bo-Katan off mid-sentence.
"Enemy at the northeast side door—fire!"
"Nite Owls—get out of the building, now!" Bo-Katan roared.
…
When the grenades went off, chunks of falling ceiling gave Max an idea. He barked at Christopher—helmet on, jetpack strapped—"Target the load-bearing pillar on the right side of the main entrance. Fire a missile!"
SHWIP—BOOM!
The micro-missile hit the pillar dead-on. The entire banquet hall started to shudder.
"Move! Fall back—get into the basement!" Max shouted.
Before the words even finished leaving his mouth, Nite Owl missiles and blaster fire slammed into the stairwell entrance.
"Run!"
…
Dragging one headless body and two severely wounded teammates, the Nite Owls burst out of the banquet hall. Seconds later, the building collapsed with a thunderous crash.
"Shriek Hawk has secured the objective," the overall commander's voice came through Bo-Katan's earpiece. "All units—exfil."
"Boss, you withdraw first. Nite Owls will rear-guard." Amid a chorus of "Copy," Bo-Katan reported, "I need another thirty minutes."
"Negative. All units exfil immediately."
"They… killed… my… people." The Nite Owl leader spoke each word slowly, her tone flat—yet packed with rage she couldn't contain.2
"Exfil now. That's an order," Pre Vizsla said without budging. "Sundari Police are massing and closing."
…
"Nite Owls…" Bo-Katan paused for several seconds, then forced the command out. "Withdraw."
"Copy."
…
PS: The "Shriek Hawk" in this chapter refers to Death Watch's unit, not Max's starfighter squadron.