The six troopers trudged through jungle undergrowth, a light rain drizzling down from the canopy upon them. The pitter patter of water droplets throughout the jungle obscured their ability to hear, making it rather easy for the Yuuzhan Vong and their Cloaks of Nuun to hide at some distance, keeping an eye on the interlopers from afar. The team of Firemane forces made their way back towards the crash site they had chosen, one that Naya, the Qadiri, had determined to have been cleared by the Dominion kill squads. She had heard shots come from that direction, both blaster from the pilot and slugthrowers from the Dominion and had guessed that the cruel Dominion Forces had executed one of the downed pilots and moved on to the next crash site.
The plan was to hide out there and wait for extraction from Firemane for as long as they could. Laira’s understanding was that Firemane would send drones to the sites first, before scouring the rest of the jungle for them. By waiting at one they Dominion had killed someone at, maybe it would take the Jedi fanatics a while to find them, maybe even long enough for them to get picked up.
The group was most of the way there when one of the Firemane Pilots signaled for a halt, raising his fist and dropping to a crouch behind a large tree. Disret was his name. With his hand he pointed at a small group of Dominion forces, what appeared to be ten men all standing together. With them, they had a hostage in binders and seemed to be discussing what their next move should be. Laira slid to her belly, peering through the jungles from the ground. Behind her she could hear one of her teammates crawling up to her position. It was Naya, who slithered beside her with elegant grace and quiet movements. “We should wait for them to move on.” She whispered, almost not speaking.
“They have one of our own. We have to help him.”
Naya made a wincing face, but seemed to understand Laira’s position. “Agreed. They will know where we are though.”
“That’s fine. We’ll be moving anyway.” The redhead rationalized it easily. They’d just have to grab the prisoner and move on as quickly as possible. “Just the four of us. We’ll move to catch them from two angles and take them down as quickly as possible.” The qadiri nodded, moving off to the side of the redhead on her stomach. With Cix injured he needed help moving, and Leo stayed with his compatriot very well. The two troopers were altered, marred with surgical scars from procedures that rendered them above human. Leo had often mentioned that while they weren’t superhuman by any means, their muscles didn’t fatigue like normal men and so their stamina could be said to be above that of a man. While at the time he hadn’t been saying it for any strategic reason, it did make him best suited for carrying the equipment and the injured Death Trooper.
Laira waited until Naya was in position, and then started. She aimed her pilfered carbine at the Dominion Forces, noting they had their prisoner kneeling, blood coming from his brow much like how the redhead’s on brow was now sported a cut above her eye. His looked fresher than something he could have received from the crash however. The Dominion had placed a vest, likely a restraining device, on him and were now simply chatting about who would have to go back with the prisoner and who would have to continue to sweep the forest. The redhead lined up her rifle, taking aim. Her finger squeezed the trigger. To the sides of her others did as well, stuttering out in short bursts at the Dominion Forces.
Laira’s weapon sputtered out a handful of rounds into one trooper, her barrel moving to the next as quickly as she could. The Dominion Forces were quick to react, some flat-footed, but all trained soldiers. Most of them dropped towards cover after the initial burst of fire from the jungle around them, nevertheless the first three troopers dropped dead, riddled with slugs. The Firemane pilot started to shout something but he was cut off suddenly by an explosion. The vest he was wearing was an ancient restraining device, one rigged with explosives connected to a life sign trigger one of the Dominion troopers was wearing. When he dropped it or when he died, the device triggered and detonated. The explosion wasn’t enough to wipe out the Dominion Troopers, just enough to send a large column of smoke up through the canopy like a bright red smoke signal.
“Damn it!” Naya howled at the sudden loss of her comrade. Behind her Leo had charged up from his position, standing amidst the undergrowth and rattling off rounds with his pistol. Four in quick succession. Two of the remaining Dominion troopers ceased firing, dead from his precise fire. As it turned out, Death Trooper armor was largely impenetrable to the basic slugthrowers the Dominion were using. Laira and the other Firemane forces quickly advanced behind him and eliminated the troopers in a surge of violence. Laira snapped off short bursts at the ground, trying to conserve ammunition, but Gel and Disret seemed to be in shock that their comrade was now just a burning corpse, red smoke still rising from his body. His features were twisted in pain, almost like he had attempted to scream right as the explosion occurred. Their response was much less reserved, unleashing a hailstorm of bullets into the jungle. Silence filled the air a moment later, eleven corpses strewn across the ground.
Naya knelt at the body of the captured pilot, meanwhile Leo carried on scavenging weapons and equipment without a word. Laira approached the Qadiri carefully, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Did you know him?” the redhead asked, trying to offer the woman some comfort.
“Not personally, no. But he was one of mine. This Dominion is cruel. They are evil.”
Laira was starting to believe that in her gut, a feeling of disgust souring her once hopeful desire for peace. Vengeance was wrong, but certainly these people deserved some for the way they treated their prisoners. These weren't Jedi. These were hardly even people, not even the citizens of the Galactic Empire acted as if it's cruelty was natural. Sure there were evil men among its numbers, but most were just ordinary people, however the Dominion seemed to be wholly crafted from evil men with few exceptions like Mara. “Not all of them,” Laira said at last. “There are some who want what we want, but they are buried by fanatics and tyrants. We have to set them free is all.”
Naya grimaced, shaking her head, but she did not retort. Laira could sense she disagreed, and part of the redhead didn't truly believe what she had said.
“We need to get moving again or they will find us here in the open.” Leo's voice called through the sound of rain and sizzling flesh.
“He's right. Let's go, same formation.” And off they went again, at a much more hurried pace.
~
Kira snapped a quick salute, holding out the report. “Probabat Shun sent sensor data back to Doctor Ur’dax, our Xenobiologist, just before his X-Wing was taken down.” Or during, the records weren’t exact, but the transmission was either sent in the second right before or during the crash. Perhaps the Force-Sensitive Givin had foreseen his predicament and prepared for it. She wasn't quite sure what he was capable of.
“He identified a fungal anomaly in the atmosphere in the jungle region he identified as being a ‘technophage’. As we understand it, none of the pilots that were downed in that region have activated their emergency beacons or attempted communicate with the fleet, which would support his hypothesis. They might not realize it, but they are blind, deaf, and mute down there. From my understanding of your drones capabilities, close scans of the region would place them in jeopardy of the anomaly, which will limit our search capabilities until the good doctor can get samples and tell us how to counteract the fungus’s effects.” Assuming he could at all.
What more was she supposed to say, that their pilots were screwed and they had little chance of finding them for the time being. Captain Ul didn’t even know that Elpsis was missing or captured, she wasn’t one of the people on Firemane’s mailing list yet. Maybe in time she'd get there, but for now she was just the deliver of bad news to go with the piping hot cup of 'your kid might be dead' Tegaea had just gotten.
~
The team made quick time, even if Cix was struggling at the pace they were moving. He was coughing more, and from the sound of it, his lungs were starting to fill faster than they had before. He didn’t have all day to sit around waiting for pick up before he succumbed to his injuries. Laira was struggling with the idea of doing it herself, seeing what she could do, but she’d either save his life or kill him in the process so she wanted to wait until it was a last resort, where he’d die anyway if she didn’t do anything. At least that way his death wouldn’t be on her she thought. She also wanted to have a private conversation with Leo as soon as they could find a moment, he was troubling her with his coldness.
Gel piped up from the side, “I see it. Firebird’s still in one piece.” He said, pulling from cover and moving to the wreckage. The fighter appeared only slightly damaged, its engine unit blown out from laserfire, but otherwise intact. The Pilot’s body was found not far away, several slugthrower wounds in his body, weapon in hand.
“Alright, Naya, why don’t you, Gel, and Disret do a quick sweep of our surroundings. Leo and I will see to Cix and see if we can get some quick base camp set up.” She turned to her boy toy and stuck her chin out, “Lay him down under the wing so he can rest.”
Naya and the others nodded and started a short patrol, Cix crawled under the wing, using it as a makeshift leanto. Meanwhile Leo took to pulling off pieces of the craft’s armor that were loose and putting them into a pile. Laira took her chance, and walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face in his chest. “I’m so glad you made it.” She whispered. Surprisingly he returned her embrace, hugging her tightly.
“Me too, red. When we heard you went down I got spooked real bad. Luckily we got dropped like, five seconds later and you came to our rescue.” He rested his head against hers gently. Laira felt safe for the first time she had been in the jungles on Tephrike in Leo’s arms. She really needed to have that talk with Elpsis before she let things go on too long.
“I was worried with you giving me the cold shoulder. Thought you blamed me.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just trying to focus on getting you and Cix out of here alive. It’s a little hard to flirt and stay in fight mode for me. Mission minded and all.”
“Well, stop that, I need some reassurances every now and again.”
“By the Emperor’s bones, will you two get a room. I'm trying to die over you two are so bad.” Cix’s voice was hoarse and ragged as he jabbed at them from under the wing of the Firebird Fighter.
Laira laughed and released Leo from her grip, “Come on, we need to do our part.” With some reluctance, the Death Trooper did the same and returned to his task.
“Yes ma’am. Come on, lightsaber off some of the pieces so we can make a quick barricade. Around that side of the ship.” The redhead did as instructed, slicing off pieces of the ship in small enough fragments that the Death Trooper could carry them and stick them into the ground as he prepared a makeshift defensive wall around the wing and nose of the fighter, using it to cover their back. All that remained was to sit and wait, and hope the Dominion didn’t find them.
They had a decent waist high wall going when Disret started shouting and firing his stolen Slugthrower. “HOSTILES!” Laira snapped her head in his direction, watching Naya and Gel tear from the underbrush, diving over the metal barricade with their weapons held close.
“How many?”
“Enough.” Naya grunted as she rolled to her knees, sticking her weapon out from the barricade and getting ready to start firing at targets as they appeared.
Disret started running in their direction, a storm of fire erupting from the jungle, shredding him as he ran towards the starfighter. “Oh, chit.” Leo grunted, ducking as the storm continued, slamming rounds into his chest armor and the side of the Starfighter. “There’s gotta be a whole platoon out there.” He muttered, reaching for a carbine. “Man down, Cix. We’re gonna need you.”
“Right, right. I can fight.” He said. Laira knew that he couldn’t really, but he was wearing the same gear as Leo and had the same training. Lieutenant Stalgis had sent him as Laira’s second in command for a reason. He crawled further into the leanto to dig out a gap under the barricade so he could have himself his own little murderhole to fire from.
Laira checked the ammunition in her own weapon, and braced it to her shoulder. She would need to rely on the Force some. Conserve she repeated in her head. Not just ammunition but also stamina and endurance. She channeled her presence into her senses and muscles, enhancing her reflexes and hopefully her ability to sense danger and began returning fire in three round bursts into the jungle. Through the mist from the rain, she could see their shapes, the Dominion Troopers besieging them. These men were not like the ones before, they weren’t out for a walk to kill pilots.
These men weren’t even what she’d call professionals given their lack of precision. Hell, they made Stormtroopers look like marksmen, but they were dumping ammunition downrange. “What the hell are they doing.” Laira asked, snapping off a few rounds and felling one of the enemies in the jungles. Her enhanced reflexes allowed her to aim and seemingly take her time doing so, while in actuality she was moving quickly and suddenly.
“These are militia. This is just holding us in place for the real soldiers to get here.”
[member="Tegaea Alcori"]
[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
