Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

The four hours until it was go time dragged on for a surprisingly long time. You would think that, by now, I would be used to the hurry-up and wait that was inherent to our job, but I still struggled to be patient. Waiting was never my strong suit, especially when I knew there were things I could be doing that were more useful than twiddling my thumbs.

Eventually, rather than just sitting there, staring at the ceiling, I joined Julus and a few Rebels for a friendly game of Sabacc. Thankfully, we weren't betting for credits or anything. Instead, one of the Rebels had a tiny holoprojector stand-in that functioned as the chip counter. It reminded me of those miniaturized, magnetic board games they would sell at truck stops and highway convenience stores. It worked, though, so I supposed there was no reason to complain.

Han played for a few hands, but quickly retired when the Rebel soldiers started getting annoyed by his constant winning. Plus, Chewie laughed at him every time he won. Han refused to translate, but one of the Rebels was pretty sure he was making fun of the fact he could only win when nothing was at stake.

As we played, I was happy to win a single hand, though mostly I wasn't paying attention enough to come even close. I was only loosely familiar with Sabacc, as it was frequently only talked about in books but rarely fully explained. I was much more familiar with how to play Pazaak, which was unsurprising considering how much longer I spent playing it in the KOTOR games. Unfortunately, while I would probably be better off playing that, I doubted anyone would recognize the game if I asked about it, never mind having a deck.

When the time finally swung around, and it was time to start making final preparations, I climbed back onto my soapbox and once again broke down the plan for everyone. The Skyforged Vanguards would serve as guards and spearheads into the facility, as would Han and Chewie. I would use Clairvoyance to track the precious metal, working our way in until we found it. When we did, the Rebellion would focus on loading up the hovercarts as quickly as possible, preparing to transfer the precious metal out. When everything was ready, the Skyforged would break into two groups. One would hold the vault itself, while the other acts as guards to the Rebel mules.

During all of this, the Mandalorians would guard the entrance, primarily to keep it from being sealed shut, as well as to keep it from becoming an ambush site. They would have a lot of support from the Chariort, Hound, the remaining droid team onboard the Chariot, and the six X-wings escorting us. Because of that, they would be mostly inside, holding the door inwards, to make the job as easy as possible for the Rebellion.

With our portion of the plan covered, I once again stepped down, heading up to my room to put on my armor. I passed Ahsoka, who winked as she went to do the same. Before she could get to her room, I reached out and snagged her hand, pulling her into a hug.

"Being your leader, sending you off into danger isn't easy," I admitted, giving her a long kiss before pulling back. "I know you can handle yourself, I don't doubt your ability at all. But it sucks every time."

"Trust yourself, Deacon," she responded, her hand on the side of my head. "I know you do everything you can to make sure each step of every plan we make is as safe as possible. I trust you to keep us as safe as we can be while still getting the job done."

This time, she kissed me, cinnamon on my lips, before she pushed me back into the hallway. With a teasing smile, she stepped backward into her room, walking back to where she kept her armor. After a moment, the door sealed behind her, and it took me a second to shake myself free of her last motion, pulling her off her outer layer to put on her armor.

When I finally recovered, I hurried back to my room, quickly putting on my armor, clipping my helmet to my hip, and heading back down the stairs. By then, I was the last one to get ready, with my team waiting on the front end of the ship by the forward boarding ramp. The Skyforged would be the first down the ramp and out into the chaos, so we needed to be first in position.

I looked around, first nodding to Corvak, who was standing nearby with his people, his helmet on and weapon ready. His team would be next after us, following our wake to the facility. Next I gave Han a look, who just smirked and shrugged, before looking over at the rest of the Rebels. The commandos were prepared, too, though their equipment was a lot less uniform. Many of them were wearing modified and painted panels from stormtrooper armor, while others were wearing completely original get-ups. Their weapons all fell into the same general category of variable blaster rifles, but I didn't see a single duplicate among them.

I knew, logically, that Draven would send the best he had available since this mission failing would negatively affect his reputation just as much, if not more so, than mine. Still, it was hard not to look down on their abilities because of the haphazard gear.

"Still think me talking about our looks and optics being important was pointless?" I asked Tatnia with a hushed whisper.

"I'm sure they are plenty skilled," She responded, rolling her eyes.

"I don't doubt that," I confirmed. "But who would you really trust to get shit done?"

Before she could say anything, the intercom of the ship snapped on.

"Dropping out of Hyperspace in two minutes," Calima's voice informed us, the tension in the first deck clicking tighter.

"Alright, everyone, this is it," I said, overriding the mumbling tension. "It's gonna be a tense journey to the surface, but the Chariot is full of upgrades, Calima is a great pilot, and we have some good people watching over us. Between all of that, I'm confident we can handle whatever gets thrown at us. Pretty soon, we will be back on the ground, kicking ass. Just try not to pull anything or give yourself a cramp clenching up in the meantime."

That got some tense chuckles from the crowd, though it didn't last long, all of us going more or less silent again. I gave Tatnia a look before pulling on my helmet and letting the systems link up. As always, the armor was comfortable, and the helmet was easy to wear and see out of. By the time I was all sealed up, I could watch as the rest of my crew slid their helmets on as well, Ashoka taking the longest since hers was the most complicated.

"One minute to realspace drop," Calima's voice said.

I double-checked my utility belt, confirming my pistol was set to lethal, before turning to face the forward boarding ramp. Time continued to count down, though we didn't have it posted anywhere. Eventually, Calima spoke again.

"Dropping… Now."

We could feel the shift in the ship as the hyperdrive shut down, and we decelerated into normal space. The sounds of the first deck were suddenly a lot busier, and the shuffling, mumbling, and occasional cough no longer drowned out by the consistent background noise of the hyperdrive generator. As the hyperdrive settled, we waited silently for Calima to continue.

"Scans coming up clean for now… I can see the fleets... Looks like the defense fleet took the bait," She explained, her words getting a cheer from a handful of people around the first deck. "Opening the side bay for the Brick… Brick away. We are approaching the planet at a crawl, the Brick is pulling away."

The thrum of the ship's thrusters kicking in was barely noticeable, vibrations absorbed mainly by the hull and the reinforced floors. Once again, we were stuck waiting, this time to give the pilot of the Brick enough time to drop into the planet's atmosphere and take out the comms tower. After much debating during the planning phase, we agreed that two and a half minutes was enough time for the small but potent ship to get the job done.

I closed my eyes, letting out a breath and preparing for another stressful few minutes. Then, over the intercom, music began to play. While I didn't know the exact piece, unsurprisingly, it was easily identifiable by most intelligent species, both here and back home.

It was the lousy quality on-hold music, the kind you would sit and wait through for hours, waiting for someone to handle your call.

It took a moment for people to realize it was a joke, the near multiversal constant causing people's stress to break into laughter, starting with chuckles until everyone was more or less enjoying it. I snorted and looked over to Tatnia, who shrugged.

"Doesn't seem like something Calima would do," I pointed out. "Not without someone instigating her."

"I have no idea who might have done this," She said with a blank tone, all while reaching back and slapping her boyfriend's helmet-covered head, rocking him forward slightly. "I doubt we will ever really know."

I laughed again, shaking my head and listening to the alien but still recognizable music, letting out a long breath. After the timer passed and the ship's engines kicked in, the thrusters ratcheted up and pushed us forward, our ship picking up speed.

"Timers done, moving in," Calima explained, her voice cutting off the music. "Loyal Hound is accelerating with us, and our X-wing escort is in formation around us."

When our pilot's message stopped, the music did not return, which I was happy about. Now that we were actually moving closer and about to be in the thick of things, it would have been in poor taste to continue joking around. Still, it had done its job, and while the tension crept back up into everyone, it was not nearly as debilitating or all-encompassing as it had been before.

Time passed, and Calima continued to keep us informed. As we entered the atmosphere, she announced that the Brick had successfully completed its task and that it was on its way to rendezvous with us, specifically the Loyal Hound, to act as an escort. Not long after that, she announced that the Loyal Hound was breaking formation to begin its own mission, the larger ship heading to the shipyard where our alternate target was landed. Only thirty seconds or so after announcing that the Loyal Hound was beginning to divert to its target, Calima made another, much more worrying announcement.

"Twenty-five TIE fighters just took off from a nearby facility," she said, sending a shiver of anxiety through all of us. "Heading directly for us."

Inside my helmet, I cursed. That was a lot of TIE fighters for the Chariot and six X-wings to handle. If we had gotten Rogue Squadron as an escort, I wouldn't be so worried, but I had no idea what color group we actually got and if they could come even close to handling it.

I was about to order the Loyal Hound back to us, delaying its mission and significantly reducing its chance for success, when Calima spoke up again.

"The TIE fighters have split. Ten are going after the Loyal Hound, while fifteen are still heading towards us," She explained. "Contact in forty-five seconds!"

Everyone let out a breath of relief, as those were much better odds, which meant I could hold back from changing the plan. Instead, I simply activated my comms and ordered Calima to take the TIE fighters down as quickly as they could.

The fight was nerve-wracking, with the sounds of the shields engaging and the inertial dampeners fighting to keep us from being flung around as Calima engaged the Imperial starfighters. As they fought, Calima kept us informed of the progress, and we celebrated every kill.

Unfortunately, we also grieved, as one of our six escorts was destroyed in a collision with a damaged TIE fighter. The rest were mopped up quickly afterward, but the mood was still sober. The news that the Loyal Hound and Brick had managed to destroy their attacker with minimal damage brought us up a bit, but this mission had seen its first friendly blood. It was now a lot heavier than before.

With confirmation that we were in the clear, we continued our journey to the facility, flying over the large manufacturing-focused city. When we finally touched down, l led the charge down the forward boarding ramp, my conjured ward up and ready.

The first real look at the facility we got was a lot more daunting than it had been through the holoprojector. The standard Imperial Evil aesthetic was heavily applied to the facility, with shades of imperial grey and black covering the walls, floors, and buildings. The central structure, our target, was a pyramidal behemoth with a multi-floor "hat" sitting on top. The area directly surrounding the large structure was an open landing area for transport ships made from solid duracrete. Surrounding all of that was a thick, armored wall dotted with turrets and armored holding points.

All of this was painted Imperial gray, which contrasted nicely with the burning wreckage already strewn across the landing pads and walls, as the X-wings took out their frustrations on the weapon emplacements and stormtrooper garrisons. They flew low over the whole complex, buzzing people as they ran, making sure to keep everyone under pressure. The longer the place stayed chaotic, the longer we had to move around unthreatened.

Rapidly, we all disembarked, the Rebels pushing hovercarts taking the longest, descending from the cargo lift. Once we were all together, we pushed towards the primary entrance of the massive storage facility. Luckily, as planned, Calima had landed us nice and close, peppering the area with weapons fire to keep it clear. None of us even had to fire a shot until we were making the final approach, where we had to quickly deal with a pair of security officers, their blaster bolts pinging off Tatnia and Julus's armor. Both of them were dropped immediately, one missing their arm a Chewbacca blew it to pieces with his bowcaster. The other had a pretty neat hole burned into his chest, right above his heart. Han just shrugged when I looked at him, shocked by his impressive draw.

"Its all in the wrist," He explained with a confident smile, making me shake my head at teh understatement.

"I'm sure. Ashoka, the doors, please," I said, my lovely partner already moving to start cutting the large armored doors. "Everyone else, let's start building cover."

While Ahsoka was cutting into the doors, a process that would take a minute or five, the rest of us started pulling and dragging chunks of stone, wreckage, and anything else we could move to the door, all to give Corvak and his people more cover to hold the door from. Ahsoka even impressed the hell out of everyone when she floated two halves of the large, industrial security door into place, giving them cover that could take a high-powered blaster cannon with no trouble.

As we finished getting everything into position, the rush of labor droids, set to follow after us after a specific time had passed, left the ship and ran across the gap, standing in perfect formation, waiting for us to go.

"Okay! Time to move everyone!" I called out, my team rushing forward with the Rebels following after. "Corvak, good luck, stay in contact."

He nodded, and I gave him a half-hearted salute before sprinting to catch up to everyone, making my way to the head of the group. I shouted for everyone to pick up the pace as I quickly cast Clairvoyance, my guide spell taking down a left turn, probably the first of many.