Canvas rustled as someone entered the makeshift tent nestled within the jutting precipices of weathered bedrock, just out of sight from the ‘frozen’ sea of glass. The old Ryn did not bother looking up to see who as she twisted to deposit another shard of crystal into a metal tin, her sleeves rolled up to let ruddy brown fur breath in the heat of Sukhur.
“Any word?” the woman asked, her brown furred tail flicking with agitation in the light cast by a portable lantern. Steady gloved hands shifted back to blaster burns on a soldier, the human male biting into a rolled nerf towel as she worked. His eyes closed and skin drenched in sweat. There wasn’t affordable time for pleasantry, not with jagged veins of crimson crystal slowly creeping across the man’s arms and torso from the wounds. Her efforts thus far stymmied much of its spread.
“Negative, Vai.” Ronpa, her partner, came to crouch on the opposite side of their patient, shaking his head. “The communication array was completely destroyed in the onslaught.”
Yellow eyes glanced up to lock on the young Selenian’s vibrant greens, displeasure at the news evident on her face and one low disapproving note escaped her fluted, chitin nose. The much younger Selenian medic frowned, knowing full well her annoyance was not at him but the increasingly dire situation the unit found themselves in. Tme was running out. He shifted to pass a look over at the second injured soldier sheltered beneath the tarp. A black IT-S00.2 Medical Droid hovered over her, its finely controlled appendages cutting and suturing in surgical precision.
“What’s the status?” .
“Tryin’ to keep ahead of the crystals before they reach somethin’ vital and we have a bloody walkin’ abomination on our hands,” Vai answered, gesturing a pair of pinchers towards the prone man. His arm shifted enough to look at her with a look of abjunct horror, a muffled noise behind the towel. The senior medic gave him a sympathetic look. She wasn’t going to sugar coat it, but damn well would she fight to prevent it.
Continuing her work, she jutted her chin towards the woman behind the lad, “Stan’s still stabilizin’ her, but she needs more than we got in the field—”
A series of beeps from 5T-AN1U reaffirmed her statement, not that Ronpa was proficient in Binary.
“So…” the wisened Ryn continued.
Ting, another crystal pinged against metal.
“What’s is the plan?”
“Lieutenant Suggcru!”
Electrobinoculars lowered as a black-haired human turned at the heated address. He passed the surveillance device to the private beside him, directing her to keep observing for any signs of the enemy. The man folded his hands behind his back and waited for the Ryn to finish passing past several of their comrades.
“Corporal Vai, what is it?” He said, after glancing down and reading the namepatch on her vest.
“You out of your damn mind, Suggcru—”
“— Corporal—”
The white tuft of her tail nearly snapped like a whip in her ire. The diminutive woman might have to look up to meet the team’s eyes but she certainly commandeered their attention.
“Proposing to go out in that glassed landscape in search of a base you do not have cords for? We haven three hours till that bloody sun crests the horizon and that plain out there turns back to molten glass.” Vai shook her head, yellow eyes locked on his, drilling. “I’m no math or science guy, Sir, but I’m pretty damn certain those temps would be fatal to all of us.”
She jabbed a finger towards the tent, “Those two would perish less than an hour of trekking.” .
“Corporal.” Suggcru repeated himself, his jaw set beneath a thick greying mustache. After it was clear the medic said her piece, he continued. “We are facing odds that are not in our favor. We stay here, and we will die. Contact to Selen was severed. We are officially without support. If a possibility lies out there to have even half our men survive, I am going to take it.”
“So,” the Lieutenant squared his shoulders and met her gaze sternly, “Unless you have some miraculous fix to this, I do not—”
Lieutenant Suggcru stopped abruptly and turned to his left. The team’s technician stood with a raised hand beside him. “What is it?”
“Sir, I am ninety-eight percent confident I can repurpose parts from the array to boost a datapad and comm, I can create a holonet transmitter.” A look from Suggcru had the blond-haired Selenian adding, “In short, we can call for extraction.”
“Hmm…Fort Blindspot’s not going to answer a non-encrypted call—”
“Then don’t call them.”
The Lieutenant and the rest of their team glanced to the wisen Ryn.
“Call a transport company.”
“Bring a civilian in here?” Suggcru huffed, clearly disliking the idea.
“I am confident our team would be able to cover them.” Vai looked to the others and nodded firmly before fixing his gaze again. “Alternative is condemnin’ us all out in the open, over molten glass.”
Boots on stone approaching reaches their ears, both glancing over to see the lass with the electrobinoculars had returned. “Lieutenant, spotted lights on the horizon. Eighty-six four-point-eight kilometers out.”
Brown eyes shifted to square up with the old Ryn medic, his neck muscles bulging as he weighed the situation and her suggestion.
A strained grunt.
“Alright, set it up.” Lieutenant Suggcru ordered the technician. He turned once more to Vai. “You got a karking contact for this damn plan of yours?”
That brown tail twitched as she nodded.
“Yes, Sir. Ta'xi Transport Services.”
Leaning back in the passenger seat, Ta'xi brought the datapad into vision. Rubbing one finger down the screen, Ta'xi quickly scrolled through the budget. “Enough to get through the month but after that not even enough for fuel, "Ta'xi muttered as a somber tone drifted from the Verpine’s legs. Ta'xi had chosen to move away from the inner core because the competition was too much that jobs weren’t nearly as available as needed. Yet having moved business out in the outer rim, Ta'xi had found most business to be of the shady kind. Ta'xi only had interest on being on the more public side of the private sector and therefore found jobs to be few and far between. The ship’s speaker system activated and a bright chiming voice came over, "Master! Master! A job has come in over the holonet. It has a short deadline for pick-up but my calculations we should be able to make it within the time frame,” Fave , Ta'xi’s FA-5 Valet Droid copilot, said. Ta'xi stood up and walked to the cockpit, pressed the door pad.
Settling into the pilot seat, Ta'xi began the systems check, “Fuel all good, Engine and hyperdrive are in the green. How many for Pick-up?”
“Oh Master, We are in luck. Approximately 7 passengers and 1 droid. Oh! It will be nice to have another droid to talk to, its been so long.”
“Great work snagging the job. What are the coordinates?” As Fave read off the coordinates, Ta'xi deftly entered them into the navigation computer. “Navi-computer calculating… It seems to have found a faster route. Should be there in about an hour.” Ta'xi said, two fingers gripping the hyperdrive lever and dragging it down. The ship shuddered for a moment and then the stars began to stream towards the cockpit. As the ship settled into hyperspace, Ta'xi stood. “Fave, wake me when we arrive. Going to take a nap.”
“Do get some rest, Master, you only had four-point-two-five galactic standard hours of sleep last night.”
Ta'xi waved and headed back into the passenger area.
Chips of rock and glass fell in a spray over the stone ledge covering the small reconnaissance team, the rock quaking from the impact of a canon bolt. A sharp sting across her cheek was left from a shard, drawing a beading crimson line. It was times like this you thanked yourself for wearing your damn helmet and padding — her sleeves since rolled down despite the gradually rising pre-dawn heat — lacerations from slivers of glass would be a pain in the ass. They had their hands full enough with wounded.
Another spray rained down, pelting combat gear and uniforms, tinging off of helmets. Yellow eyes darted to Ronpa a few meters away and using a brief lull in canon fire, Vai crouched ran over to his side. The young selenian was ensuring the canvas tarp that was their tent an hour ago was covering the two downed soldiers. They had strapped the woman 5T-AN1U had stabilized with surgery to the one hoverstretcher at their disposal, and had sliced the tarp in two to use one half as a make shift sling. Plan was to get them both loaded on that transporter, two to operate the board and four to move the lad. Once the ship was here.
They needed that bloody craft to be here twenty minutes ago.
Clouds of dust crashed into the sheltered valleys of dust again, illuminated by their dim lighting. The old ryn pulled her grey-streaked ashen braid out of the way to fix the strap of her oathbreaker rifle, her back pressed flush against the stone face. The look from Ronpa did the asking for him.
“One Reaper lander so far, wouldn’t be surprised if they got another incomin’ soon — certainly had more at that bloody crystal base of theirs,” she answered. .
Her yellow eyes darted to the main group huddled near the outer ledge as a holler shouted. Private Baykale was passing the electrobinoculars to Lieutenant Suggcru. Seconds later, he was signaling for the others to tke aim and fire. Vai gritted her teeth, pivoted onto her feet with a grunt. Scaling onto the rock face with one foothold to boost up high enough, she laid the barrel of her rifle across the edge. Her tail flicked sharply as she looked down sights quickly.
“Karkin’ Hell! Eight of them crystal soldiers.”
Vai chambered a bolt with a lever. With her blink from the slide-click of the action, memories of those red stone skin zombies flashed through her mind. First Dandoran, then the attack on Fort Blindshot. Wisened hands shifted her aim till the crimson crystalline solder came into view, transmongrified Zabrak by the looks. Species didn’t matter. Whoever they were had been lost as soon as the Ascension or whatever these freaks called it had taken hold.
An exhale, her finger squeezed. Once, twice, three times. Two of the slugs grazing the shoulders of the creature running towards them, wounds that would have paused a normal being. The third broke through and sunk into a gap in the rocky plates along the ribs, sending the assailant stumbling backwards for a moment. The old medic didn’t hesitate or delay. That motherfraker wouldn’t be down for long. She fired three more times, the last finally hitting home into the head from the reeled back chin. Blaster fire filled the air as the Restoration Troopers returned it, forcing the Arconan squad to duck back down for cover. Vai popped back down as well, sliding along the wall just in time as another blast from the reaper lander struck again. .
She refused to accept defeat, but damn was the odds agaisnt them. The Mortis footsoldiers were a she-akk to down, they had bloody canons on that damn landspeeder of their, who no how many reinforcements — they hadn’t gotten a good pitcher before their first encounter they barely escaped from. And to top it off, the heat was rising to a degree that would kill them if they stayed on planetside for too much longer, and the was without the first rays of dawn cracking across the sky yet. The old ryn shook her head and scrubbed at her forehead beneath her helmet.
“What,” Ronpa spoke up, reloading his slugthrower, the one she convinced him to get after a debate on them versus blaster one cantina hang out. He continued, voice seemingly at ease despite the shake it held, “What are you going to do when you get back?”
“What?” Vai blinked.
“I have an A grade cut of nerf steak in the freezer. Really looking forward to marinating that and grilling it up. Got a pale Kashyyyk ale begging to go with it.” He exhaled and popped up to fire a few times over the crest.
It clicked.
This game of theirs, a resolve tactic she learned while enlisted with the rebels. Usually she was the one initiating it, this was a first from the young lad. The ryn chuffed, passing him a light smile when he ducked down again.
“Got a dinner invite in a couple days. My granddaughter’s hostin’, planned the whole dinner with her mum,” Vai shared, a warmth in her tone. “Would be a damn shame to miss it, so let’s blast these motherkarkers, eh? And tell me later where ya got that steak.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Ronpa nodded.
And the two of them rose back up to empty their cartridges into the encroaching foes.
Fave reached a metallic hand over and gently pushed the hyperdrive lever up. As the ship settled into real space, the valet droid opened the ships internal comm speakers, “Oh master, we have arrived at our destination. Do wake up.” Ta'xi sat upright in the passenger seat and stood up. While Ta'xi headed to the cockpit, a quick detour procured a water bottle. Sitting in the pilot seat, Ta'xi took stock in the visual. A sliver of light crested the edge of the planet they were approaching, its intensity thankfully protected against by the ships systems. “Fave, what are the atmospheric conditions of the planet?”
“Master, the planet has a breathable atmosphere, high winds on entry, but the heat index is rising near our intended pick up coordinates. At the rate of increase we have about 1 hour before life becomes unsustainable near rendezvous point.”
“No wonder they had such a limited time frame for pick up. It wouldn’t have been needed.” Ta'xi off-handedly scrolled through available data on Sukhur, while guiding the ship towards the planet’s atmosphere. “What kinda spice were they on when they chose to party on this planet?”
The shuttle shuddered as it broke through the atmosphere. The choppy winds rocked the ship before they cleared the cloud cover, once free Ta'xi could see the glistening landscape. The glass surface practically twinkled underneath the little daylight that this side of the planet was currently experiencing. Ta'xi checked the read out for the coordinates, and compared it to the topographical scans, “Shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes to the destination. There’s an open plane to land on, but if the thermo readings are too high for direct exposure, there is an outcropping about 2 klick’s from the coordinates that should provide cover from the light. Pick-up can be completed with the landspeeder.”
“The radar system has picked up additional ships ahead. They appear to be transports of some kind.” Fave said as they processed the details flowing across the screen.
“Double-booked, maybe?”
“Oh master, they are not going to be taking our clients from us.” the FA-5 droid replied in what amounted to anger for a droid.
“Contact the clients and let them know that pick-up is inbound, provide both potential rendezvous coordinates.” Ta'xi said, pushing the throttle forward, compound eyes staring at the approaching landscape.
“Attention assigned clients, This is Fave, valet and co-pilot for Ta'xi transport services. We are inbound to your position and will arrive shortly, sending potential coordinates for rendezvous as well as seating and transportation details. Thank you for choosing Ta'xi transport services, we look forward to having you onboard.”
“We have a transmission!” hollered Jeroste, the technician, a headset pressed tight to the Selenian’s ears as his hand fiddled with a makeshift antenna.
Vai glanced over mid reloading her rifle, and noted Lieutenant Suggcru moving over to the lad. Seconds later, the greying human was waving her on over.
“Be right back. Hold down the door, eh?” She said, reaching over to pat Ronpa’s knee before ducking low to hustle over. The old Ryn crouched beside the others, her knees not complaining with their exercised limberness. “Yes, Sir?”
“Got word from that Ta'xi company or Fave or whatever. They’re ‘proaching and gave us two options.” Suggcru gestured to Jeroste who passed over the headphones and replayed the intel.
Giving them back, she turned to the Lieutenant. “Only one choice, the open plain.”
“Didn’t call on you to make the choice,” he huffed and jabbed a thumb over at the injured, “How many needed to move those two?”
“At the least, one on lift and two to drag the other. The other seven press and cover retreat because I don’t know about you, but I rather fight than sentence four people to their deaths.”
Once again yellow eyes matched brown, then Suggrcu snapped fingered to the technician. “Relay the reply. Private Baykale!”
The human woman popped down from releasing a salvo of blaster bolts. “Yes Sir?”
“Tell everyone to prep charging as soon as we spot that transporter!”
She nodded and started popping down the line pressed against the stones. Vai nodded and set off to pull someone to aid in the hauling of patients, 5T-AN1U following and rattling off the present surface temperature once again.
Too karking hot.
“Master, they want us to land on the glass surface”. Ta'xi’s mandibles clicked together as the three fingered hand gripped onto the throttle. As the escort shuttle approached the landing zone, Ta'xi’s antenna’s twitched once,…twice, and three times was definitely not a charm but a warning of a clear and present danger. Ta'xi pulled back on the control stick and the shuttle rose higher, just barely avoiding a laser impacting the landing spot.
“Master, the other transport appears to be attacking us.” Fave said as they checked the radar system. Ta'xi’s legs rubbed together created a prolonged screeching noise. “I suspect this may no longer be a party. What kind of ship are we dealing with?” Ta'xi said, right before barrel rolling the shuttle to the right, the hull groaning with the strain. Lasers flashed past where the ship previously had been. Fave pressed a button overhead and then looked to their right at the data feedback that came from the area scan, “That’s strange, Master, It appears to be a Tie/RP.”
Ta'xi flew the shuttle forward, glancing at the topographical scan, and dove it down into a nearby chasm. Were there any passengers, the glass walls would be worryingly close to the windows. The Tie/RP dove in after but due to the turns couldn’t get a clear shot on the shuttle. As Ta'xi took yet another sharp turn, a wall of glass appeared in front. Ta'xi pulled back on the control lever and the shuttle rose, its nose and bottom of the ship scraping the glass wall releasing a piercing wail through the air.
A crystalized hand pushed forward on the throttle, closing the distance on the shuttle when it suddenly made a turn to the right. Taking the turn as fast as possible and as close to the side of the chasm, the pilot of the Tie/RP had a clear view of the top of the shuttle as it made a ninety-degree turn up the side of a glass wall. Had they been traveling at their previous speed, the Tie/RP may have been able to maneuver out of the way, but with the increased speed their turn only made it to sixty-three-degrees before the ship crashed into the glass wall.
An explosion behind them and an alarm blared in the cockpit. “Master, the attacking ship is gone but so are our shields,” Fave said, pressing a button and silencing the alarm. Ta'xi flew the shuttle back to the landing zone and started the landing procedure, “Fave contact our clients and let them know we have arrived at the coordinates. Afterwards, do a systems diagnosis and let me know what we get. I’m going to check the damage on the outside.” Ta'xi opened the door and walked out into the twilight. Off the ramp and under the shuttle, the verpine scanned the bottom for any damage.“The shields took most of the damage. Everything else appears cosmetic,” Ta'xi muttered to themselves and used one arm to wipe the sweat off their brow.
“Attention clients, we have arrived at the chosen destination. Due to unexpected issues, there may be an additional surcharge on your balance.”
.