Chap 26. Tatooine arc: The sands wash away all but memories

Morgan strapped into the boarding pod, Vette to his left. Inara was with the squad of enforced, Alyssa in the third joined by more soldiers. They hadn't been happy to be split up, nor get different assignments, but they hadn't complained.

The men and women surrounding him he didn't know. His soldiers, that much was obvious, but keeping track of names and faces was starting to become impossible. This pod alone held eight people who he'd never met before, having joined during his hunt for Rathari, and there were dozens more.

Enough it was starting to get abstract. Numbers on a page, squads separated between specialties or experience. The ones joining him were shocktroopers, trained and equipped to break enemy formations. He never fought with them before, they didn't know him, and he had the irrational urge to switch them out with Jillins' squad.

The man had more than earned his command over them, in his opinion, and they actually knew how to fight with a sith. He shook his head minutely.

"Our objective is the command bridge." He said, more for something to distract him than true need. "The other two squads will be taking the engines and communications stations respectively. The enemy ship is disabled, we do not know if it was assigned its maximum of four-hundred marines, and if it has how many have survived the battle. I will lead any engagement, your job will be to back me up. Don't be afraid to fire into a formation I have engaged. Do try and keep your aim on the enemy."

Nods and acknowledgements echoed in the small space, the door closing with a hiss.

One of Kala's officers came over the speaker, his voice monotone. "Travel time of approximately twenty four seconds. We are aiming to put you within two floors of the bridge."

Vette nudged him, tapping her helmet. He switched his channel to private, looking her way. "First time?"

"You've been with me, or known about my whereabouts, since we left Korriban. Yes, this is my first time sitting in a tube and hoping not to get disintegrated. Even the Force can't save me, and damn me if I haven't gotten used to that safety blanket."

She bumped his shoulder, her tone teasing. "Welcome to the realm of us mortals."

The door completed its safety checks, setting off a second later. It was quiet, peaceful even, when they exited the launch bay and entered open space. "How many times have you done this?"

Her tone was wishful. "Must have been dozens. I remember my first. So filled with optimism, back then. With the righteous zeal of the wronged. No feeling quite like being sure that what you're doing is right. Needed."

The seconds ticked by, the room filled with thick silence. He looked to the door, so close he could touch it, and steeled his mind.

The pod was equipped with laser cutters, the kind they used for asteroid mining, and after the shock of attaching themselves to the Hammerhead they made short work of its armour. Eight, maybe nine seconds until the door pushed open, clearing the way of debris and ensuring they could exit.

The Force whispered and he pushed, grabbing the six small spheres and flinging them back. He kicked off, landed in the middle of scattered crewmen and soldiers, and his knives began their bloody work.

"See." Vette said, her voice low enough it wouldn't travel far. "This is why I like fighting with sith. Would have made a mess of us fine Imperial subjects, it would have."

Morgan ignored the men staring at her, the other half looking at his feet. Thirteen dead in the time it took them to disembark, his knives finishing what the grenades hadn't. "Stack up on me."

They moved through the ship, eight soldiers and Vette close behind. They moved in a column two thick, his lightsaber able to defend the entire group from frontal attack. That became necessary when they turned the corner, a hastily stacked barricade blocking their way. Morgan looked it over, wondering if he should spare the power to blow it up.

Reason won out, reaching out with the Force. Two of their members carried visible grenades, the only soldiers among the barricade, and he activated them. Panicked shouts came their way, still too far to engage properly, and only one of the unfortunate soldiers managed to extract his explosive and have enough presence of mind to throw it his way.

Morgan batted it back, the detonation catching the left half at the same time the right exploded into fire. He advanced slowly, blocking or redirecting the limited fire turned their way, and his men took care of the rest.

"This is what I like to call the turning point." Vette gloated, her voice coming over their comms. He checked, seeing she was broadcasting to the whole squad. "Where you proud soldiers can relate the stories you've heard to real life experience. So no more grumbling, hear? I'm friends, or at least friendly, with your captain, and I don't think he'll mind if I take over corporal punishment."

Tight nods were sent her way, Morgan feeling lost. He abused his command access to kick everyone out of the connection, just leaving him and Vette. "What was that for?"

"No need to worry." She assured, and he easily imagined her grin. "Just keep being the terrifying war machine you are, mamma will take care of the rest."

He watched the hallway as his squad ensured everyone on the barricade was dead. "You're not my mother. Nor would you want to be, trust me on that. Now kindly stop being coy and explain."

"Just ensuring the loyalty of your men." She half whispered, the effect lost over the comms. "And we'll talk about your mommy issues later."

Morgan shook his head, seeing the barricade was cleared. He waved his hand forward, their formation forming as they continued.

Two terrified groups of crewmen fled as they approached, abandoning their post and dropping their weapons. His map guided them to the bridge, apparently Kala carried stolen blueprints for Republic ships used during the last war, and he cut through the blast door within a minute.

A swarm of droids, he counted no more than twenty, interrupted him when he was almost finished. The squad of shock troopers held them off as he extracted his lightsaber, kicking off from the door to land in their middle.

Unlike the droids employed by the hutts, or the ones on Balmorra, these proved not so lightsaber resistant. Two of his men still fell, striding over when the last enemy crumbled to the ground.

One of them, late forties with an unfortunately long nose, was fine. She grunted as their medic injected a shot of stimulants, dulling the pain of a no doubt enormous bruise forming on her shoulder. She put her helmet back on, not looking at him.

The other had been unlucky, his leg twisted where he lay. Broken, Morgan didn't need the Force to tell him that, and the man stiffened with a soundless scream as he forced the bone together again. Their medic wrapped a mechanical brace around it, nodding her thanks.

Morgan turned to the door, breathing deeply as he leaned back. The kick reverberated through his body, the blast door bending open with the groaning of metal. "What seems to be the trouble, Hirosho?"

A crewman, not captain, was talking to Nomen Karr. The image flickered some, the man standing tall and easy. A stark contrast to his contact, Hirosho seeming near hysteric. "Trouble?! We don't have the men to fight off three sith! The engines are already lost, not that they were much use to start with, and the you didn't see that crazy fucker ram a warship!"

"In my defence, I didn't give that order." Morgan interjected, stepping onto the bridge proper. It was staffed with a skeleton crew, his squad spreading out to round everyone up. Vette joined him, twirling her pistol and pushing the captain into his chair. "But yes, it did seem crazy at the time. Worked out in the end."

"This is insane." Hirosho laughed, his hand gripping his hair. "Just destroy one little warship, Hirosho. Don't worry about that treaty we signed, I'll take care of it. No, no it wasn't important to inform us it would be filled with sith, why would that matter? You have three Hammerheads, Hirosho, and a veteran captain. Nevermind we didn't give you enough fighters or soldiers, or that the other two ships were pulled from the shipyards before they were fully repaired. Oh, we also appointed two near rogue captains. Just a snag, Hirosho, you still have them outnumbered three to one!"

"You were provided the details necessary to perform your duties. Now, please remain quiet." Karr replied, not seeming bothered. "Sith."

"One moment." Morgan returned, walking over to the captain. Karr nodded. "Captain, order your crew to stand down. They will be treated as prisoners of war, or the equivalent when not at war, and I will personally ensure they will go to one of the nicer prisons."

The captain looked to the jedi, who seemed like he was waiting for a friend to finish his drink so they could leave, then to the crazed Hirosho. "Don't see much of a choice."

He turned to the comms, ordered his men to stand down, and complied as Vette prodded him to stand with the rest of the bridge. Morgan turned back, looking over the increasingly unstable Hirosho. "Karr was condescending, but not wrong. I suggest you find your peace, a breakdown will not help you."

Two of his men, another two guarding the prisoners and four more keeping watch over the door, guided the man away. "Sorry about that. Pleasure to meet you, Nomen Karr. I've heard great things."

"I presume you are Dath Baras's new apprentice. You know me?"

"Nice touch." Morgan grinned. "But you know who I am. Certainly haven't been keeping a low enough profile for the SIS to not have a file on me."

The man shrugged. "So they do. Baras and I like to keep tabs on each other. When I heard of a new apprentice I investigated, not liking what I found. Another brute I could have stomached, another crazed sith throwing a tantrum, but a fleshcrafter? No, sith, that I cannot allow. I have been heavy handed, though, that I'll admit."

"Three warships attacking an Imperial vessel unprovoked could start a war." Morgan agreed. "Nevermind that Baras would have been forced to respond, should you have killed me. Loss of reputation and all that."

Karr shrugged. "He is ever unpredictable. I thank you for the insight, sith. It will come in useful for the next time."

"Not going to bargain for your men?"

The jedi shook his head. "They have served their purpose. The greater good will prevail, sith, as it has for millennia."

Morgan chuckled. "The greater good has been the excuse of tyrants throughout all of history. You remind me of my master, Karr."

A flicker of anger, of something he couldn't quite decipher, flashed over Karr's face. The man disconnected. Morgan chuckled again, turning to Vette. "Tell Kala to land the rest of Quinn's men. Keep Alyssa and Inara close, they might need to help break some last pockets of resistance."

They weren't needed, it turned out, and two hours later found the brig full and a nervous Kala glancing at her report. Morgan sympathised, old memories flashing up briefly. "You won, captain. I assure you no bad news will overshadow that."

"Right." She took a breath, organising her thoughts. "The Aurora's holding. Armour is thin, down to forty percent in some sections, but that damage will be easy to repair on even primitive planets. I've stocked the ship with the assumption of long distance missions, without the luxury of Imperial Logistics handing over what we need. My engineers are stocked with three matter-printers and even a biological growth vat. As long as we can obtain high quality durasteel we can manufacture most of the things we'll need for repairs."

"Most?"

Kala nodded, not seeming concerned. "The engines are the main weakness. If it gets damaged, even should said damage prove to be minor, we'll need specialist expertise and tools to repair it. Not applicable here."

"A weight off my mind." Morgan smiled. "Please take this at face value, but what were you thinking? Ramming wouldn't have been my first choice, nor my second."

The captain winched. "It. It worked?"

Morgan sighed. "Yes, captain, it worked. Now please explain why."

"Oh. They didn't account for it, this ship is built for it, and it would add division in the ranks. With a proper command structure I wouldn't have risked it, but there wasn't."

"That seems to be the case, yes. Assembled with haste by Noman Karr, abandoned when it proved to have failed. He's more ruthless than I expected, something I'm pleased to have learned in victory rather than defeat."

Kala nodded, not seeming to be sure what she was nodding for, and cleared her throat. "I'll have my full report to you by morning. The ship is finishing its last checks, but afterward we can leave on your orders."

"Very well. Set off when ready, captain, I'll be in my chambers."