End of the Line

[Laira Darkhold]

Mytus VII

"Basically, its a fortress we could sorely use as an escape path if things with the Sith Insurgency or the Silver Jedi continue to heat up." Draco shrugged his shoulders, looking around the briefing room. "We show up, use Boarding torpedoes and Drop Pods to assault the prison, jam communications, and quietly take control of it. We may have need of a place to put a number of Sith soon anyway." Ever since the Stygian Caldera had revolted against the Silver Jedi, the Mandalorians had been on edge. Not only did the bombing of Korriban surprise them, especially since the majority of the city had been loyal to the Silver Jedi for several years at that point, but the withdrawal had also left the Clans with the knowledge that there were certainly formidable Sith in hiding in the Stygian Caldera.

"I'd personally love a listening post on the planet while we're at it. I want to know large scale movements going on to the north of our borders." Jarl Edrin spoke, his voice deep and monotone, like the droning of a Droid. "Its close enough, its outside our space, and if we are already putting a secure facility on the system, I'd like to be able to use it for a few things. Besides, we brought a Yai'vhey with Vigiliance mines in the hold, might as well work on putting up something with a bit more range."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Agreed. We are making the trip, might as well make the trip have solid strategic relevance. Let's get to it. Eight hours till reversion." Strike Cruisers were fast and brutal, but, hyperspace always took time and was always boring. The Warlord was away from home right now and he was already anxious to return to Alderaan. For now, other matters distracted him. The warlord's boots clanked upon the metal deck, resounding off the corridors of the ship as he strode through the bowels of vessel towards the Drop Pod hangar. "Yeah, well, that's not as important to me. I see the need for a listening post, I just don't want some big, giant, Force-awful monstrosity everybody knows is sitting there. The prison is in the bottom of a ravine and works fine. We can carve out some of the cliffs and make a set of catacombs linking with the complex for hangars, and just general ground based defense. But a giant antenna is kind of hard to hide."


"It's been done before boss. Especially if its not being looked for." Jarl Edrin's voice came across the comlink, the man himself waiting for Draco in the Drop Pod hangar. "Mytus is small and out of the way, and nobody cares about it as far as we can tell. Stick a dish on one of the asteroids and call it a day. If anyone investigates, deactivate and go into quiet mode. Shouldn't be a serious issue." The veiwports of the hangar shifted in color, from the blue-white of hyperspace to long black streaks of white, until it was just darkness with the occasional pinprick of light.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Except our enemies are primarily Force Users, which means they might be able to sniff out an asteroid base. I'm sold on the idea of needing one, not sold on shoving one here. Lets focus on taking the prison from the locals quietly and swiftly." The future would hold something for them, but as of

"Well, intelligence indicates locals aren't space capable at this point in time. Mostly they are feral beings left here from Gulag as best as we can tell." The doors slid open in front of Draco and he could see the Jarl sitting at a table with several mugs of alcohol sitting around on its surface. Wooden chairs were arrayed around the small round table as men and women saw to their duties in preparation from the attack.

Draco put his comlink away to speak normally, hoping that would alleviate some of the other Mandalorian's monotone droning, but it was a false hope. "Feral?"

"Uh, having been stranded here for a four hundred year darkness that's only been lifted for the past for only about a century, they kind of reverted to a more primitive state. With few resources available to them, we believe the resorted to cannibalism which caused their society to revert to a brutal, tribalistic, feral for lack of a better word, state." The Jarl slid a handful of images across the table, depicting hunched over humanoids covered in rags or leather with raggedly, unkempt, matted hair. "We doubt that leather is from a beast by the way. No livestock."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"So, issue all the boys and girls going to the ground Wrist Flamers and other light infantry weapons. Have them move through in fire teams of four, and let the Young Bloods stretch their legs." Draco knew this kind of fight would take time, clearing every part of the towering prison that had fallen into the ravine, but it wouldn't necessarily be a difficult fight for the Mandalorian army. A few hundred Young Bloods could gain valuable experience fighting in the corridors against a foe that was poorly equipped and basically untrained, relaying on feral instincts alone.

"Aye Alor. We are issuing all the fire teams AXIS droids to assist in scanning for life forms and opening doors. Drop is in twenty minutes so everyone should be okay. Two fire teams per drop pod, standard procedure for minimal drops into the prison because we don't want to have to completely rebuild the thing. I've gotten my Kindred ready to make a run on the reactor room with my engineers and some repair parts. See if we can get it back online." Not a bad idea for them to see about salvaging the reactor core, and it was likely if they could the battle against the feral denizens of the prison would instantly becoming nothing more than a sweep going door to door and burning those inside.

"Sound's good. I'll accompany you. Load up in fifteen minutes and ready to drop." Draco nodded and made his way to a secluded corner of the hangar on the Strike Cruiser, breathing in deeply. His pre-battle ritual wasn't uncommon for Mandalorians, but for his clan, it was a little attached. Many of his people embraced death willingly when it came for them, even the younger ones smiled when it found them as though meeting an old friend. They made Death work for it though, but when they did go, fear, anguish, sadness swept through them only briefly. Pride was the emotion Draco felt them feel the most, the strongest. He pulled off his glove and focused on his ring, pouring his calm presence into it and feeling the life of his riduur on the other side. She was comfortable and his reassurance would sweep through her. He hadn't died, but he assumed regret and fear would be the emotions he would feel the most. Perhaps if he lived for several more decades, long enough to see his children have children of their own he would feel pride like those he called kin.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco sat in silence for several minutes, the sounds of weapons cocking, ammunition being loaded into magazines, warriors running from equipment bays to Drop Pod launchers resonating behind him, a million miles away. He breathed in deeply and let out the air slowly from his longs, focusing on the task at hand. His mind sharpened in preparation for the coming battle and his heart slowed. His muscles shifted and tensed as the Force filled his veins, flowing through his body like blood. "Alright." He said softly, reassuring himself before turning back to the warriors getting ready to fight for his cause. "Load up." his voice rang out across the hold, warriors finishing what they were doing quickly and rushing to their Drop Pods.

Draco nodded at Jarl Edrin as the other man stepped up into a pod several launchers down the line, his Thane rising up into the pod between them. The three officers in command of the Clan Vereen forces readying to clear out the prison all headed for the same place, different pods. Just in case there was something down there that could fire at them.

The pods closed behind the warriors, sealing with an audible hiss as the pods pressurized just enough to keep the men and women inside alive through re-entry and landing. The low, almost unregistrable hum of the inertial dampeners was barely present. Draco ticked off the seconds in his head and when he reached zero the light inside the drop pod changed from yellow to red, the rush of sudden acceleration could be felt, his stomach lurching into his throat as was normal with such a sudden burst of speed.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The craft rocked as it passed through atmosphere, clouds and thunder rumbling around through the hull of the heavy metal drop pod. The small screen to his right the pilot was using to guide the craft, as well as it could be guided, turned the craft towards the base of the fallen tower. The Jarl's drop pod was ahead of them, by about three of four seconds. On it Draco could see the tower approaching, most of the pods guided to strike the valley floor or the cliffs above it, with only a small handful actually targeting the tower itself. The Jarl's drop pod began burning its retro boosters and then his own did a second later, about a second too early. Draco watched the screen as the mining laser and drill on the Jarl's drop pod smashed into the tower and crumbled, the laser failing to penetrate the tower's walls.

The warlord jerked, forcing the controls to jerk the pod into the cliff face rather than the tower's outer wall. The pod smashed into the side of the cliff and flipped, dropping to the base of the ravine with a loud crash, rubble and rock following it from the rift the drop pod's drill opened in the side of the cliff-face.

​Draco's ears rang, his vision was faded black, but slowly returning to normal as he regained his senses. He could feel and hear the other men and women in the drop pod coming back to consciousness as well. A quick glance at his chrono told him he'd only been out for a few seconds, and though he had a headache, he would live. The Jarl's drop pod had been nearly flattened by the momentum and hitting the solid armor of the prison. Draco could hear scratching against the hull of the drop pod, but the doors hadn't opened like they should have.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Someone get the doors open." It wasn't his voice that gave the order but he could hear it. Someone else answered, a woman, a young blood by the sound of it. "Can't, something is holding them closed. Probably heavy debris." It would have to be a serious amount of rubble to pin the hydraulically opened blast doors closed, but not impossible.

He braced his back against the central column of the drop pod, put his hands and feet into the door and pushed. The Force funneled through him into his muscles and slowly, with a grating of shifting rock and dirt, the drop pod lifted up off the ground. The light from outside peered through the opening that appeared around the doors of the drop pod. The subtle scratching stopped as the Drop pod slowly lifted up, righting itself as Draco shifted his position to force the door open. "Everyone out, come on."

Draco slipped out of the pod, his muscles feeling that unnatural ache from having been over-exerted, but that after-affect was already fading as his attention shifted. The small spaces around the main column allowed for each warrior to squeeze through and slip out of the opened door. Draco looked up, and atop the rubble that had shifted around during his exertion of the Force he could see three humanoid figures, crouched and watching them with bloodshot eyes and fanged mouths agape.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Up behind us." He said nonchalantly, waving at the beings that watched them. One of the warriors turned and swept his wrist flamer in their direction. With a shriek unlike any Draco had heard the beings scattered, disappearing behind rubble or ducking into ventilation grates that had been torn open. "Don't worry about them. How far ahead of the main group are we?" He glanced around, looking if he could see any surviving drop pods with the strike group that had been assigned to the reactor.

"About thirty minutes. Thane Ulfgar is on the comms. He and his people landed near an entrance to the tower. He's asking about reinforcements." Draco nodded, recognizing that they were likely also alone.

"Alright, lets jump down to him and get to work." Things had already taken one turn for the worst, it was time the command group reform and make their way into the prison complex. The Mandalorians jumped, using their jump packs to fly down into the ravine, passing crevasses, ledges, and small openings in the tower's armor as they made their way to the Thane and his seven Mandalorians.

In the darkness, Draco could feel eyes upon them. Hunger radiated from the presences he could detect, his helmet sensors could pick up handfuls of life forms inside the small vents and hallways that were exposed within the fallen tower. Draco ignored the dark emotions and cruel intentions he could detect coming from them, he had felt them all before. Whenever the Cult traveled with him, he felt those same things. He had felt similar things within himself long ago, what felt like a life time ago.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

In the darkness of the ravine, the eight Mandalorians found their kin, eight more waiting among a dozen of more bodies of feral beings with elongated fingers, sharpened teeth, and deep gaunt features. They almost appeared skeletal, their eyes sunken in, the whites of their eyes turned grey, their irises with rings of orange and red around them. They were unwell, unhealthy from their appearance. The bodies were mostly smoking from fire and ripper shots, though one or two was slashed up. In the back of Draco's mind he thought to watch about getting too much bloodsplatter on themselves for fear of drawing too many more sharks to the scent.

"Alor." The short man who acted as Thane of the Kindreds that had accompanied them said in acknowledgment. "Don't underestimate them too much. They don't look like much of a threat, but they are strong, they overpowered Frejar, we had to blast one of them off him." The short man gestured to the largest of the group with his weapon. "They don't go down easy either. Keep shooting until they drop, and then put one in their head. They like to play possum."

The Mandalorians around the Thane looked banged up, several of them with scratches on their armor or torn pieces of cloth. "Alright, you said there was an entrance."

"Aye, there. Its small, but scan says it goes into the complex." The man pointed to a small tear in the armor of the tower, barely big enough for a wookiee to walk through, certainly not large enough for a warrior to fight comfortably in the rip.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Good. I'll take point, stick together, we've got a solid lead on our reinforcements so lets keep up with each other on the inside." Draco slipped into the tear, waving a hand behind him, "Someone get full metallurgical data on this. It flattened a few of the pods that struck it and held up enough to their mining lasers to cause the impact to kill everyone. I want to know what it is." He flicked his wrist and activated the paddle-beamer on his arm so that he could stun any of the beings that came upon him.

He exited the rift, and the others fell behind him quickly, forming up around the warlord with shields and weapons out. Moving in pairs along the corridor, Draco could feel the subtle pressure of excitement, not fear on his men. The darkened corridors of the tower filled with beams of light as the Mandalorians began moving through slowly, glowrods on their shoulder's and weapons shining a path before them. They heard a few of the tower's denizens scrambling to evade detection, unaware that the Mandalorians had located them moments ago with sensor scans.

So far, none had been brave enough to stand and fight, though from the appearances of the tower it looked as though the place was a labyrinth of small passages, ventilation shafts, tunnels, and corridors for them to hide and attack from. The audible hum of active igniters on wrist flamers could be heard over the soft padding of boots against on the tunnel. Shadows shifted, and noises of scrapping and claws on metal sounded from all around them, every being waiting behind a corner slunk back into the deeper shadows as the Mandalorians approached them.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The unit comm channel was mostly quiet, the occasional update on their location or one of the Young Bloods mentioning an approaching life form only for it to stop twenty meters or more away and observe them or fall back. "They don't seem too interested in making a fight of it right now. Should be good for us for now." Thane Ulfgar's voice could be heard as the short man pulled up the rear of the group. Behind him they could all see the outline of several life forms, maybe six following them into the tower as they made their way deeper and deeper.

"Nope, they are trying to funnel us. Every time we make a turn they don't like they have to scramble to avoid us and make their way back around to try and herd us in the direction they want us to go." Draco's voice had a slight echo on the Comlink as the channel repeated what he said softly.

"How do you know?" One girl asked to his right. She was nervous, but not about fighting from his senses. She was nervous about having to fight beside several veterans of the clan. Draco found it odd that deep in a nest of cannibalistic, feral, psychopaths, that a teenage girl was more worried about embarrassing herself in front of a few old warriors than she was about dying. Perhaps his leadership made them feel safe, or more likely, they grew up surrounded by conflict, that it was all they had ever known.

"Every intersection has one clear path, the rest are making noise." He pointed his spear down the two hallways where a scratching noise was emanating, the occasional shifting of shadows as their followers moved about the corridors staying out of the paths lit by the glowrods. "They want us to go left, but we want to go straight. Hopefully they don't wise up and pounce when we get to the reactor core."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Why's that." She asked again, confused about why they should worry about being fought by these things at all.

"Because the Reactor core is an open space with a bunch of entrances for them to come out from. All we could do would be either backs to the wall or circle up and hope we could outlast them. Its a poor place to have a fight against them." Strategy was notably beyond most Young Bloods, hot tempered teens looking to get their swords wet and show their kin how well they fight, how much they deserve to be members of the clan. How much they desire to be considered adults.

"So?" the Thane's voice could be heard, getting a few chuckles from the small group.

"So, they outnumber us about fifty to one." The chuckles and laughing on the comlink cut off. Some of them nodding. Draco could feel a few of them shift around which weapons they were carrying. His estimate was rough, only slightly more than what he could feel in their general area of the tower. In total there were about six hundred other Mandalorians rushing to their aid that landed in the cliffs and the valley below the fallen tower, but as for now, it was just the sixteen of them.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The denizens in the depths of darkness continued doing their best to herd the Mandalorians, but Draco continued to lead them towards their own goal. Every now and again the Mandalorian warriors found a path blocked by several dozen beings just outside the light and had to find a longer way around them rather than risk being attacked from four directions down here in the depths of the fallen tower.

“Alright, follow this corridor to the entrance and we’ve made it. Downside is, they are still following us, and they aren’t blocking the way we want to go anymore.” Draco’s voice was rather cheery over the unit com, speaking plainly and normal volume now.

“Anything beyond the reactor core up thata way?” the girl beside him asked, silently hoping they weren’t about to make a stand against the feral people they had been flanked by at every turn.

“Not that any of our sensors register.” Draco responded with a slight frown behind his mask. He patted her shoulder reassuringly. “Well, let’s start the fight here so we have a place to fall back to if we must.” Draco spun his spear in his hands

The Thane began barking orders quickly and hurriedly, the lone shaman of the Kindred shaking his head. “Looks good for us. Not so good, but, not bad.” The Shaman’s prophetic abilities offered some reassurance to the Young Bloods who realized they were about to fight for their lives deep in the dark of a tower relatively alone, almost a half hour before any reinforcements could arrive.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Young Bloods, shields up on the front. Everyone else pair off and cover each other. Call out when things start to get rough. Alor where will you be?” The Thane’s voice pulled Draco’s attention off the Shaman’s vague prophecy of their relative victory. From the sound of it, they would lose a few of their compatriots before the day was done.

“I’ll be on the front with the Young Bloods.” He patted the girl at his side, “Let me know if you need a breather. I’m going to be conserving so that if I need to I can cover the corridor on my own.” She nodded, but he could feel her anxiety, the anxiety from all six of them was obvious to his senses.

“Yes Alor. We won’t let you down.” One of them said, drawing his beskad.

“Just make sure you use your wrist flamers and slugthrowers often. They can do a lot of the work for you, don’t hold them back to show off.” Draco’s words of wisdom might take hold in the young ones, but he almost exclusively used his shield and spear in close combat, his other weapons being a pair of paddle beamers and a pair of incendiary rocket darts.

The rest of the group finished pairing off and taking up positions in the corridor, four pairs, two facing backwards, one facing either side with the Thane in the middle to fill in wherever he was needed most. His own sword was still sheathed on his back, but he held a Vornskr scattergun in his hands for the fight. “Alright, somebody piss them off with a grenade.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

In the back, one of the warriors pulled the trigger on the under-barrel grenade launcher attached to his weapon and sent a single fragmentation grenade down the darkened corridor. They could hear the scrambling and scratching of claws as the beings hiding in the dark investigated the device that fell among them before the bright flash of the explosion illuminated the silhouettes of humanoids being blasted away from the epicenter of fire and shrapnel.

Screeches and grunts of anger came from each hallway, scrambling, scratching and growls followed them, growing louder and louder as the feral creatures advanced on the small Mandalorian group. Short bursts of fire emanated from the Mandalorian group, followed by shrieks and deep gurgling as ripper rounds damaged their lungs and stomachs.

Thane Ulfgar growled across the comlink, holding his shotgun at the ready, waiting to be needed rather than emptying his shotgun while the Mandalorians were still holding their ground. The pairs of Mandalorians strafed fire across the feral beings, trying to keep them at arm's reach as best as they could. Draco's senses could detect that there were far more around them than what they could engage, but they would come at the Mandalorians in a steady stream until they became exhausted or distracted by the bodies of their own fallen to supply them with meat.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The first group of feral beings smashed into the line of Young Bloods holding the front, shrieking as the Light Shields and Dinu’ul burned their claws harshly. The Young Bloods hacked into them with Beskade, slashing at arms and legs to limit their mobility, unleashing great gouts of liquid fire into the small group of enemies amidst a torrent of screeches and screams. Still burning or burnt, the feral creatures hardly let off their attack, throwing themselves at the young Mandalorians.

The slammed into Draco who stood his ground fine, heaving his weight forward right as they were about to hit him, knocking them off their feet. He had started this fight with his spear extended, but swiftly altered to using the weapon like a machete, using it to rapidly stab and disembowel the creatures alongside the young bloods who were being consistently forced backwards. He found they were being shoved and knocked backwards so much so that he was forced to backpedal to keep up with them.

The continuous mass of oncoming beasts didn’t let up or let off their attack, and already the Mandalorians had been shoved back almost fifteen meters during the initial clash. Draco could hear the Thane’s voice over the comlink as he issued the orders for a fighting retreat, tapping two of the young bloods on the shoulder indicating that they needed to pull off the front line and make their way to the back line to help clear a path for them to move. At first they didn’t react and the short warrior had to yank them backwards to get their attention and direct them. Draco could feel the anxiety and bloodlust rolling off them as they violently sought to prove themselves able warriors. A few of the veterans understood that they were making headway against the horde of untrained, unequipped beasts they were fighting, and Draco hadn’t begun instructing the Shaman to assist him to clear out large numbers of the creatures.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Our reinforcements are hitting the back of the horde. Keep falling back and stretching them out.” Thane Ulfgar’s voice seemed slightly relieved that the other Mandalorians had hurried into the tower once Draco had led the small advance team into the fallen fortress.

The group continued to move backwards towards the reactor core, carving a path through the feral creatures as they did so. Draco saw from the corner of his eye one of the young bloods be knocked off his feet, and though Draco stabbed the offending beast with a quick thrust of his spear through its chest, he was unable to stop the others from grabbing the young man’s ankles and dragging him off down the corridor shouting, kicking, and hacking as best he could. He felt the short burst of fear for only a moment before the young man found his resolve and the explosion of a grenade marked his death down the corridor.

“Turn.” He shouted, getting the teen girl to his right’s attention so that she would turn some, alerting her to the presence of a denizen playing dead lurching up at her. With a slight gasp she impaled the being with her sword but it didn’t keep it from knocking her off her feet and falling atop her.

Draco, fired his rocket darts into the beings grasping at her ankles and moved to stand over her while the Thane jerked forward dumping scattergun blasts into the beings trying to take advantage of the thinning line and reduced numbers.

Explosions rocked the corridor, the residual shock waves stunning the denizens as Mandalorians levels above them used heavy explosives on the groups of ferals hiding in the dark. The decks and armor plates held, after all this time, which was odd, but the shock waves did scare the denizens, getting many in the back to retreat into the shadows, heading for their hiding holes and ventilation shafts where they could hide until the main force of Mandalorians found them.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The screams and shrieks of the feral creatures persisted as the small group of Mandalorians fought their way into the Reactor core, followed by dozens of remaining hungry beings. One of the warriors had tripped and was gone before his partner could turn and blast the creatures away from him, viscera leaving a trail from where he had been dragged away. The young woman Draco had managed to save from that fate was limping along beside him, hooked to his belt by a safety line. Her ankle was torn and twisted, likely broken during her near death experience. The shaman beside the Thane blasted three of the creatures backwards with a bolt of lightning sent forking out through the air into them, the hatred and anger he channeled into the bolt charging the air.

“Circle up. Everyone circle. Wounded in the middle, shields on all sides.” Draco’s order was heard by the veterans, pushing and shoving the younger warriors into their proper places as needed. The girl now stood behind Draco, pulling her pistol and using Draco to stabilize herself. Bolts wracked their enemies and swords cut at legs and exposed stomachs of the feral monsters as the Mandalorians held their ground. More explosions sent small shockwaves down the corridor as grenades and ordnance detonated in the levels above them.

Draco could feel several similarly sized groups of Mandalorians fighting on the reactor level now, moving slowly towards the beleaguered advance team. It was not in his nature to desire rescue, but in this case, they had sorely needed some assistance to handle the enemies they had found in this place. “Hunker down, take shots of opportunity.” Thane Ulfgar’s voice echoed across the comlink as he direct the wounded warriors, blasting a being with a scattergun blast to the chest.

Only a few moments passed before the creatures retreated from the Mandalorians, now outnumbered by their own deceased, they turned on their own wounded and dead for food rather than the hardy Mandalorians, choosing easier prey and slinking off with their prizes into the deeper shadows while stutters of ripper fire chased them and caught those that were too slow in the darkness.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Minutes of quiet passed while the Mandalorians stood in silence at the dormant reactor core, waiting for the next group of Mandalorians to come and relieve them before dropping their guard knowing the creatures waited for them just outside the beams of light from their glowrods.

Metal boots could be heard clanking down the corridor, shots ringing out as the approaching mandalorians sprayed ripper bolts into the bodies of the fallen creatures, assuring they were dead and not just playing at it. Draco sighed and deactivated his shield as they turned into the lights of his glowrods gesturing his thanks with a raised hand in their direction. “All clear in here.”

“You all alright?” One asked, an older man soon to retire from active service. His voice was grating and rough, scratchy from having breathed in so much smoke over the years.

Draco pulled his helmet off and took a swig from his canteen quietly, taking a moment before responding. Sweat had built up on his brow and he could feel the ache in his bones now that adrenaline and “No, but we will be once a couple get some medical attention. If you have an engineer, we need a hand seeing about getting the reactor back online. All we need is enough for emergency power.”

One of the men, along with two of his own sheathed their weapons while the others saw to their own injuries and secured the room. Explosions could still be felt by the trembling of the ancient tower while several hundred Mandalorians fought their way through the fortress.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

What felt like hours, but was more along the lines of forty five minutes, a few backpack generators were scattered around the reactor core and the first of outside supplies had been brought down to the core by heavy loader droids.

They were having trouble cutting their way through debris and the walls of the fallen tower due to its composition, and thus delays in repairing the core, or replacing it were already adding up. Right now, a few running lights had been activated and the local computer banks had been activated with a slicer making copies of whatever he could find.

“Make sure you figure out what you can about making this crap.” Draco rapped on the wall with his knuckles resulting in a metallic clang. “With as much pain as its causing us, I wanna know how it ticks and how to use it and how to break it.”

Thane Ulfgar sat quietly listening. “I’d say it caused Jarl Edrin a bit more pain than its causing us.” Draco knew it was a joke, and that the short man was coping with losing his friend and mentor in what was effectively a drop pod malfunction rather than in battle.

“Have a bit more respect. Ulfgar.” The moot would determine the next Jarl with Draco’s approval, but it would likely be Ulfgar. There weren’t many other notable candidates and Edrin’s son was still too young. “The Clans must profit from every life lost or its not worth the tax in blood anymore. We can at least make use of this. Speaking of which, what the hell is it?”

“Molecularly bonded armor. Gonna have to set up the metallurgists with some new equipment if you want to use it.”

“I do want to use it, get as much data as you can to take with us, and I’ll get MH and Gotal’veman to bill more for the equipment if I have to.” Draco said, patting the Mandalorian slicer on the back and turning back towards the others. “Alright, lets get yall out of here then.” He reached down and helped the young woman back to her feet hearing her mutter a quiet "Thanks," while the others followed him, heading for the exit path.