"I can fix her. Unfortunately, she had the same thought about me."
As far as firefights went, I really could have lived without participating in this one. Now granted, my experience was limited to the extended jaunt across Lord Grathan's estate, where I was more of an active observer than a true combatant. Oh, and that pirate ship I liberated, but the shooting there had been almost entirely one-sided. That didn't count.
But here on Taris?
In the heart of my little outpost that had turned into the frontier of the colony?
A mix of duracrete dust and contaminated soil was raining on my head, I could almost taste the ozone from the nearly overheating blaster emplacements blazing merrily away into something on the far side of the berm, and a squad of security troops were clustering around a mortar that was spitting explosives with commendable speed.
Unfortunately, we were not the only ones capable of delivering death from above. A muffled thump reached my ears, distant and barely audible. Instinctively, I grabbed a chunk of rubble with the Force and threw it upwards. By luck or by design, that had been enough to set off the incoming round.
Once again, hailstone-sized bits of debris rained down on me. It was not a pleasant experience, but far preferable to a grenade landing between my feet.
I activated the commlink clipped to my collar, set to audio-only, and already aligned to the frequency of the outpost's headquarters.
"Control, this is Janus," I said, keeping my voice calm. "How're we looking?"
"Observation reports the pirates are starting to thin out," the static-laced voice of Mourd answered. The young man whom I had saved from the brig of the pirate ship had opted to stick around on Taris. As had all of them, for that matter, apparently quite content with doing honest work towards a noble goal that didn't pay exceptionally well. "Our losses have thus far been minimal, but two of our turrets have been disabled. There was an incident in the lower decks from some pirates using a tunnel of all things, but interior security has them suppressed. The lockdown group is still sheltering. Oh, and we have friendlies incoming. Scopes read three Republic gunships."
"Excellent. Janus out." The line went dead again, and I intercepted another explosive round. These were a lot more pirates than I had been expecting at once, but we were doing alright. That report of a breach was concerning though, even if it had been contained… "Security teams, head inside. I think the turrets can handle it from here."
The sounds of assent were encouraging, and the combat teams did not hesitate to get under some decent cover. I stopped another incoming explosive before joining them.
"Hold this position," I told them once I was back under a solid roof. "The main colony is sending some backup. Best not let them think we've given up the fight already, eh?"
"I don't think they're coming over the ridge any time soon, bossman." The leader of the security team did not think much of the pirates. Then again, given how one-sided this whole scuffle had been so far, it was hard to blame her. Of course, part of that was thanks to me.
"Probably not," I admitted, giving every member of the security team a reassuring clap on the shoulder. "But we might as well remind the governor's people that we are in fact handling ourselves just fine. Send half your team to support the landing bay team. Some potshots should keep those pirates distracted for at least a little bit."
The landing bay opened up a bit above the ridgeline, making it an excellent place for some overwatch.
"What about you?" she asked. "Going to run air cover?"
Some scattered laughter met her question. Some of it even came from me.
"I'm going to reassure the lockdown team," I said. "Not much of a pilot, I'm afraid, let alone a combat pilot."
"Do you even have a license?"
"I don't recall hiring law enforcement."
More laughter met my comment. The appropriate response to a joke, all things considered. And you know what? I was laughing with them. After all, when was the last time something I had done had directly helped people?
This whole Taris venture felt right. Not in a 'help the Empire expand to keep the war hawks from baying for blood quite as loudly' as most of my work did, but unambiguously right. And hey, I was keeping a former mad scientist out of the hands of a man throwing the galaxy's biggest temper tantrum.
A shame it was probably treasonous.
I made my way through the barely renovated halls of the Endar Spire, more than a little lost in thought. Of course, I knew where I was going; The location of the lockdown shelter was ingrained in my memory, after all. But while my body went through the motions, my mind was allowed to roam freely.
Until I found the first body.
Not belonging to one of my people, of course. My team was fairly well trained, and I had made sure to have anti-personnel turrets built into the ceiling panels in all the major junctions. After all, I still remembered how I had 'liberated' this wreck.
And I had no desire to play tag with Rakghouls in a set of tunnels.
But do you know what I desired even less?
Finding a dead imperial on a Republic world. A recently dead imperial. As in, dead for less than an hour.
The blood oozing from only mostly cauterized wounds was a bit of a giveaway on one of those fronts. The black imperial armor was too, but on another front.
Yeah, this was going to complicate things.
"Control, this is Janus," I said into my commlink. "Do you have a location for those pirates that made their way into the base?"
"Yeah, they're engaged at the C-19 junction," came the response after a few seconds of pause. "Why? Are you going to move in?"
"Correct," I confirmed, already moving. "Can you get me a description?"
"Wait one… I'm getting reports of black armor with red accents. Visual feeds… wait a min- OH HOLY STARS! That's imperial armor!"
"That's what I figured," I muttered, glancing at the signs decorating the nearest corridor junction. "Let security know I'm moving down the C corridor to support them."
"Copy that, Boss." The line went dead for almost thirty seconds before the static-laced voice of my subordinate returned. "Boss, I, uh, there's a Jedi on the backup team that just arrived. Maybe you could wait up for them?"
"Fine," I allowed. A Jedi complicated matters just a tad, but I could deal with it. "I'll wait for them at junction… C-25," I decided after a moment's thought, slowly coming to a halt.
Right, a Jedi. That was not the worst turn of events. Depending on the Jedi, it could greatly speed things up. I could make sure Doctor Godera was safe and was going to be sticking around here for a while, arrange for that tunnel to be sealed, and then be out of here. Natia should have been able to convince at least a few of her other allies to join me on Nar Shaddaa.
From there... well, I could figure it out.
Of course, that all relied on the Jedi that was joining the fun to be some one that had never met Nestor. They would be able to see through my disguise in no time. Dealing with a Jedi who was guaranteed to be a lot stronger and more experienced than me was difficult enough when
Naturally, that was when a familiar presence flooded my mind. Like someone had decided to stop hiding.
Oh fuck.
That was about as much as far as my train of thought went before the doors behind me finished their unsealing cycle and whispered open.
And those doors revealed a familiar diminutive figure: the Little Jedi in the flesh.
"Good of you to join me," I greeted her, trying to keep the fear and dread out of my voice. No doubt it was a wasted effort if she could read emotions as well as thoughts, but that was a problem for… thirty seconds into the future Nestor? Scratch that, two seconds into the future Nestor. I knew firsthand how quickly the Little Jedi could cross a room and start a rampage. "Ready to get started?"
"I'm ready if you are… Janus," she said, her voice saccharine. Without any hint of threat or violence, to my complete surprise. "Though I will need you to answer some questions once we are done here."
"As soon as my people are safe," I said, nodding my head. "You want to take the lead?"
"Ladies first, I see," she commented, confidently striding past me. The lightsaber in her hand was still extinguished, but I knew how quickly that could change. "And by your people, I presume you mean the colonists?"
"Whom else would I mean?" I asked.
"… you're aware that there are imperial soldiers inside this wreckage, yes?"
"For now," I allowed. "I've got you around, haven't I?"
"You are worryingly trusting," she sighed. Already, we were nearing the C-19 junction. Or rather, the heavy blast door leading to it. The Little Jedi took up a position in the middle of the corridor, just a few steps from the blast door. I, meanwhile, busied myself with the lockdown controls and began punching in my override code. "Where's your weapon?"
"Don't have one," I answered, finger hovering above the green 'go' button. "Ready to go?"
"Give me a distraction and I'll handle it."
I could have said any number of things. Like how being a distraction was my previous job title. Or a wish for good luck. Instead, I jammed my finger into the glowing green button, and the blast door slid back up with a groan. Beyond, the curved locking arms of the door were already retracting, the doors sliding into the housing at the side of the corridor.
The Little Jedi wasted no time.
She threw herself through the gap in an instant, lightsaber flashing into life in front of her. The poor imperial soldiers standing to either side of the doors never knew what hit them. I saw two black shapes get thrown into the center of the hallway where they were met with a pale blue arc.
I felt something in my awareness dim, but that was a problem for later. For now, I had to play support.
There were… a lot of not-friendly minds on the other side of those doors. Doors that were still cycling open with only a small gap. The gap was rapidly growing, but it still was too small for me, but it still let me see what was happening. I saw the Little Jedi bound across the room to relieve another soldier of his head, while another soldier raised his blaster.
A flex of the mind, and a torso-sized plume of flame erupted around the nearest imperial soldier.
Amazing what a bit of crushing force did to a container of pressurized gas. Of course, it didn't do much to the soldier; that armor was rated to withstand quite a bit, after all, and plain old fire was fairly easy to defend against. And unless you were constantly surrounded by fire, it was not terribly dangerous.
None of that mattered to the human brain, of course, which had exactly one natural response to suddenly being surrounded by fire: be anywhere but there.
Unfortunately for that imperial soldier, I had a nasty trick up my sleeve: pyrokinesis. That glorified parlor trick I had been practicing on Zyg Prime came in handy as I traded close control for sheer power.
That plume of smoke became self-perpetuating as I forced the wave to wash over the soldiers on the other side of the junction.
Any blaster fire came to a halt as the soldiers tried to override basic biological instinct with military discipline. In any professional army, that kind of thing took seconds at most.
Trapped in a confined space with the Little Jedi, that kind of delay was deadly.
Before the flames had fully dissipated, the Little Jedi was done. And I had a bit of a headache, but that was a minor concern.
Because now I had to figure out how I was going to keep her from killing me.
Personally, however, I would settle for getting her to stop following me.
...
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