Children of Mandalore: Prelude to Terror

CHAPTER FOUR:

　
The rain began to fall not long after the last few flames of the blast had finally burned out. Kurru Ivat surveyed the destruction caused by the infidel ship, privately approving the large crater that had been etched into the swamp. The Yuuzhan Vong warrior savored the smells of combat. The scent of burnt flesh, Yuuzhan Vong flesh, filled the air. The burning crater that had been the infidel vessel was emitting fumes of its own. There was more of a metallic and unnatural smell to those fumes. Kurru took great delight in watching the infidel vessel burn becoming somewhat entranced by the flames and the way they danced around the blackened Durasteel hull. Somehow the ship seemed like a massive aquatic beast that had been slain and brought to shore, it’s many pieces scattered across the sand.

He subtly shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind and return to his task at hand. He had three prisoners to bring back to the Temple to be submitted to the Breaking and eventually the honor of being sacrificed in the name of Yun-Yammka. Three soldiers, highly trained and effective combatants from a warrior culture that was both revered and feared in this galaxy for their prowess in battle. They had worked for the Yuuzhan Vong for sometime during their initial entry into this galaxy to begin it’s cleansing, using their skills to great effect until turning on them recently. Kurru was not aware of a word for their people in his native tongue but he knew the word used by the infidels of this galaxy.

Mandalorians.

Never having faced the Mandalorians but being fully aware of their reputation as warriors, Kurru found his first encounter with their kind to be underwhelming. He turned towards one of his subordinates, a moderately scarred warrior wearing the same, swirling, red and black tattoos of Domain Ivat.

“Bring the prisoners to my personal transport.” he ordered the warrior as he turned away from the crater made by the drop pod and headed off towards his transport.

It was slightly larger than the average coralskipper but not as large as a Yorik-Trema dropship. It could accommodate up to ten warriors and the pilot. Ivat, flanked on each side by some of his finest warriors approached the craft arriving just as three of the Mandalorians were being hauled onboard.

“Commander surely these infidels cannot be the same beings who defeated three different Domains and retook two worlds from our forces?” the warrior to the left of Ivat snarled.

“These infidels may not be the best that their kind has to offer, maybe they were sent here to die after their faults were recognized by their leader.” Ivat shrugged “It doesn’t matter. The High Commander will deal with them when we return to the Temple. Order the rest of the warriors to resume their regular patrols, we are done here.”

“What of the others, there might still be more of them out there.”

“If there are they will be too severely wounded to be of any threat.” Ivat said definitively.

“Then they will be easy to hunt down and exterminate.”

“The local wildlife will take care of that.” Ivat didn’t break his stride as he climbed into the transport and started for the rear of the craft.

The three Mandalorians were already being hauled into the transport. Their helmets had been removed, either by the blast or by his warriors Ivat didn’t know and didn’t really care. He was rather surprised at how young the three humans appeared to be. They looked much younger than many of the other soldiers the infidels had thrown at him and his Domain when they had taken this system from them early in the Yuuzhan Vong’s conquest.

Maybe that was the explanation for why they had failed so spectacularly in their mission to rescue the Jedi. Kurru thought to himself as he climbed into the transport after the six warriors. He slowly turned his body in the direction of his new prisoners, who were kneeling with their hands secured to the deck with blorash jelly, and took in no small amount of amusement from the dark looks he received.

Two of them were rather large and looked similar enough in the faces that it was hard to not confuse them as twins, and Ivat instantly began to feel as is his position in his caste was going to change in a very rapid fashion. He had defeated a group of Mandalorians, prevented them from desecrating the Holy Temple of Yun-Yammka, stopped them from rescuing the Jeedai and now he potentially had three of them to sacrifice to the Slayer God, and two of those sacrifices had potential to be twins.

They were even wearing identical armor, black with some gold trim and sigils here and there.

“You!” he snarled at the largest Mandalorian “Are you his twin?!” he indicated the somewhat smaller and obviously injured Mandalorian to the big one’s right side.

Tyran Numeck stared up at Ivat “Twin? Sorry to disappoint you but you won’t be getting any promotion on our account.” he spit on the large Yuuzhan Vong warrior’s vonduun crab chest plate.

Snarling, Ivat struck Tyran in the side of his face with a large and armored fist. It only snapped the large Mandalorian’s head to the side, which he then slowly turned back to face Ivat “You’ll regret that.”

“Are you threatening me infidel?” Ivat raged stepping closer to the Mandalorian.

“He’s sure as hell not inviting you for caf and cookies.” the green armored Mandalorian to the left of the big one said dismissively. Volar received a solid backhand from the Yuuzhan Vong warrior standing next to him “Keep pushing your luck scarhead.” he yelled at the guard.

The warrior reached out to strike Volar again but Ivat stopped him with an outstretched arm and a snarled phrase that sounded as alien to Tyran, Rixa and Kial as the large asteroid-esque transport they now found themselves in looked.

“Do not touch the Mandalorians.” Ivat yelled “They will be a gift to Yun-Yammka from High Commander Draisa and must be delivered to him in decent order.”

“This one is already heavily wounded.” the warrior behind Rixa said indicating the bloody crack in his durasteel backplate.

“They will be thrown in with the Jeedai and their wounds treated so they will be in proper health for the sacrifice.” Ivat said giving Rixa a disgusted look “They have no honor left now that they have been defeated, it will do no further insult to have them receive medical aid.”

“Pathetic meat sacks.” another warrior said kicking Rixa hard in his side.

Rixa let out an involuntary yelp as the blow doubled him over partly as the blorash jelly kept him from being able to bend his abdomen all the way. Tyran and Kial turned their eyes to Ivat.

“When we meet your Slayer God I’ll make sure to send his head to you after we’re done with him.” Tyran said.

Ivat backhanded Tyran with his armored fist drawing a fresh cut across his face. His skin along the right side of his face was red, slightly burned by the explosion, an explosion he had engineered. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind, he had more important things to focus on.

He had no idea how many of his team were left to execute the real plan, the one he, Rixa and Ryia had put together. The plan he had outlined to his team on the Tal’galaar had only been thought up because no one would have gone along with the real one. The plan was for Tyran and Rixa to be captured by the Vong and activate a tracking beacon that Ryia and the remaining team would follow and hopefully rescue them and the Jedi.

But now Rixa was wounded, there was a third man on the team that shouldn’t have been there and he may have disintegrated the rest of his team with a spur of the moment idea.

The overall success rate for this mission had just dropped drastically.

What was the saying his father had always told him?

Remember Tyr’ika always expect for things to go wrong with the mission because that’s the nature of the job, and if the mission goes too smoothly keep your eye on your six because you may be getting set up. Tyran could practically hear his father’s voice in the back of his head echoing the phrase over and over.

Well dad I guess you were right….again. He thought.

The Yuuzhan Vong transport lurched suddenly and both Tyran and Kial traded uneasy glances. They both knew that they were headed for an interrogation session and they both knew that their captors were going to torture Rixa to get the information they wanted from the two healthy Mandalorians. Rixa, judging by the resigned look on his face, had pretty much reached the same conclusion.

“Think all that anti-torture stuff we learned on Raxus Prime will work?” he asked.

“We’re about to find out.” Kial said darkly. “I just hope they don’t mess my face up too bad. Savah will kill me.”

“Or she’ll thank the Yuuzhan Vong for making improvements.” Rixa laughed. Kial gave Tyran an irritated smirk and Rixa inhaled deeply before turning his head in his older brother’s direction. “I’m thinking not investing in solid beskar armor was a bad idea on my part.”

Tyran felt the transport leave the ground and was pushed back by the acceleration. “I agree little brother.”

**************

Elai lowered his sniper rifle and slung it across his back as he watched the Yuuzhan Vong transport lift off into the sky. The red armored Kiffar slowly rose from his covered position and began backtracking to the cave network that he and the rest of the Supercommandos had holed up in to treat their wounds. He silently cursed himself for not being quicker and not getting to Tyran, Rixa and Kial before the Yuuzhan Vong had.

“Ryia, the scarheads took Volar and the Numeck brothers.” he transmitted over a direct link to the teams new leader.

Temporary leader. The Kiffar thought as he waded through the thick mud that had hampered the Mandalorian retreat from the crashed escape pod. The rain wasn’t helping much either. It proceeded to turn the already dense mud into a soupy muck that seemed to want to devour his feet every time he took another step. We’ve got to find Volar, the Numecks and that Jedi so we can get off this forsaken world.

“Unfortunate.” Ryia replied “Out of all the people to get stuck with Tyran and Rixa get Kial Volar.”

Elai audibly laughed inside his helmet. Leave it to Ryia to still make disparaging remarks about Kial Volar even now that he was in the hands of probably the most ruthless beings to grace the galaxy since Palpatine.

“Fate it seems is not kind to the Numecks.” he replied to the comment.

“I’m not so sure Fate had anything to do with it Elai.” Ryia sighed “Get back here pronto, we have a new plan to put into effect and I want you here to hear it.”

“Yes sir.”

Ryia closed the link and turned back to face his battered and burned team. Dawk had run through most of her supply of bacta salve she had brought along after applying it to the various degrees of burns the team had suffered. He considered it lucky that only one of his team had suffered severe burns and then immediately questioned why he found that lucky.

Kas Birek, his two bare arms thoroughly covered in bacta salve and wrapped tightly in synthflesh bandages, was sitting propped up against the wall of the cave with Dawk kneeling next to him with a hypo.

“You need to let me give you this.” she was saying to the dark skinned Mandalorian.

Kas shook his head “Painstims will only impair me more, I need to have a clear mind and cant afford to have it fogged up by medication.”

“Pain will do that just as well as the painstims will.” Dawk persisted “If I give you the painstims at least you’ll be able to use your arms for a few hours without feeling anything.”

“No.” Kas replied firmly.

“Kas stand up.” Ryia said walking over to him.

The large Supercommando did as instructed and Ryia came to a stop a few paces from him facing towards him “Okay now draw your sidearm and point it at me before I draw mine and aim it at you.”

“What?” a bewildered look fell on Kas’s face.

“Just do what I ask.” Ryia said dropping his hand down to his own sidearm.

Kas gave a slight shake of his head but slowly placed his hand over his holster and gripped his sidearm. His eyes narrowed somewhat as a jolt of pain shot up his right arm from the simple movement.

“Good,” Ryia said “Dyir give us a three count.”

Dyir nodded and began counting. Ryia fixed his gaze on Kas silently counting along with Dyir. Sweat was begging to form on the larger Mandalorian’s brow. Dyir reached three and in a single, fluid, lightning fast movement Ryia had drawn his sidearm and had it aimed dead center at his target. Kas let out a groan of pain as he tried to manipulate his arm in the same way Ryia had.

“Take the painstims.” Ryia said “You’re faster on the draw than I am, you shouldn’t have lost.”

“I’m fine.”

“Alright let me put it this way,” Ryia said walking over to Dawk and grabbing the hypo “You can either have a trained professional do it or I can do it and shove it somewhere you may not like very much. Either way the painstims are going into your bloodstream.”

Kas didn’t even need to think on it “I’ll take the trained professional.”

“Smart man.” Ryia said handing the hypo back to Dawk who had a large grin on her face.

“Out of professional curiosity as a physician where were you going to stick this?” She asked him.

“Sorry but that’s not something I can say to a lady.” he said giving her a pat on the shoulder before walking over to where Beluin, Dyir, Koryn and Baydo were sitting in a loose circle.

Dyir had removed his helmet and placed it on the floor next to him. He blonde hair was slicked back with sweat and he was gnawing on a dried out nutrient bar made out of a mixture of oats and honey. Half of his face was a bright red, an after effect of having a wall of flame wash over half your body while the other was submerged in swampy water. Beluin was doing much the same as Dyir, eating rations and simply waiting for orders. Koryn had managed to catch a rodent the size of Ryia’s arm and was in the process of devouring it.

“Well that’s lovely.” Ryia said as he took a seat in the circle next to the large Barabel. Koryn made no acknowledgement of his leader’s comment and continued on eating in silence.

Baydo was sitting with his back against the rock wall with his legs extended and arms crossed. His chin was tucked into his chest and his breathing was heavy. Though it appeared that the Mandalorian was in deep sleep he could still jump to his feet fully alert at a moments notice.

“So,” Dyir said swallowing a mouthful of nutrient bar “What’s the next move?”

“Well now that phase one is over, when Elai gets back I’ll inform the rest of you on phase two of Tyran and Rixa’s brilliant idea.”

“What happened to the plan we had before we landed?” Dawk took a seat in the circle next to Beluin.

“Crashed,” Dyir corrected “Not landed.”

Ryia let out an amused snort “You’ll be brought up to speed when everyone is here.” Everyone looked at him and all their faces said the same thing to him. Most of us, not all.

The next ten minutes went by in relative silence as the group of Supercommandos sat and ate. They each tried to avoid contemplating the events of the day but each began wondering if rescuing the Jedi was worth all the effort. As far as they were concerned it had become a mission to rescue their friends and the Jedi could sit and rot. It wasn’t much longer before a very good imitation of a bird, common only on Mandalore, began to drift in through the cave entrance.

It was the signal they had decided Elai would use when he returned from his scouting mission. Soon the sound of his boots were echoing down the cave walls as he worked his way deep into the cave complex where the rest of the team had set up shop.

“What’s the situation out there?” Beluin didn’t turn his head as he asked the question. He was too busy examining his newly trimmed cranial horns in a small, handheld mirror.

“Better than it was.” the Kiffar sniper set his shatter rifle against the cave wall and took a seat between Dyir and Kas. “The scarheads aren’t looking for us.”

“What?” there was no mistaking the tone in Ryia’s voice for anything other than disbelief “What do you mean they aren’t looking for us?”

Elai removed his helmet and smoothed over his sweat drenched hair. He turned his gaze to Ryia and fixed him with a curious glance “Is that a trick question? I think the statement ‘they aren’t looking for us’ is pretty self explanatory.”

“A better question would be why aren’t they looking for us?” Dyir asked standing up.

“They’re probably too busy with Tyran, Rixa and Kial.” Elai grabbed a plastoid bottle filled with water the team had collected before taking shelter in the cave. They had boiled it for well over the normal time frame it took for water to become purified just to be on the safe side. The group let out a collective sigh as he drank “You mentioned something about a plan?” he asked tossing the bottle to Kas as the burned Supercommando joined the group.

“Yeah,” Ryia said as he tried to discover the best way to reveal the real plan without having much of an argument after he brought it up. He came to the decision that the truth was the best choice and inhaled deeply “Tyran and Rixa weren’t captured by chance, it was by design.”

Koryn’s head snapped up from his rodent meal and he let out a very menacing hiss “What do you mean ‘by design’?”

“The plan Tyran outlined on the ship was not the real plan, he only gave that briefing because he wasn’t so sure you all would go for the real one that he, Rixa and I came up with.” He received an equal mix of upset, confused and disgusted looks from the Mandalorians sitting around him. “The plan was always for him and Rixa to be captured. Tyran had a tracking device implanted in his forearm that sends a signal to a receiver that is accurate to within six meters.”

“And the three of you figured the Yuuzhan Vong would take the two of them to the same place where the Jedi is being held?” Beluin’s voice was half angry and half confused.

“Yes.”

“What were you going to do if it turned out that the Jedi wasn’t being held in the same place as the Numecks?”

“We were going to improvise.” Ryia said a bit sheepishly.

“Any reason why you didn’t think to clue is in on the real plan instead of giving us a line of bantha osik?” Dyir’s voice was all accusation.

“Me and Rixa wanted to do that but Tyran was firm in keeping the rest of you in the dark.”

“Didn’t trust us?”

“You know better than that! He didn’t think you would go along with two of your friends willingly throwing themselves into Yuuzhan Vong hands in order to rescue one Jedi.”

“Well he was right. We don’t even know if that Jedi is alive.”

“Rixa was injured,” Elai added “He could barely walk when the Yuuzhan Vong led him to the transport.”

“Those were variables we had no control over.”

“So let me get this straight,” Dyir said standing up and moving towards Ryia “You planned on two members of the team to be captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and decided not to tell us about that plan, now three members of our team are being held captive and one of them is injured to the point where he can barely walk. And it is all for one Jedi apprentice who for all we know may be dead. Am I right so far?”

“Yes.” Ryia turned towards Dyir.

“Well then what’s next?”

“That is very simple,” Ryia said taking in the entire group with a sweeping glance around the cave “Track them, find them, rescue them, kill every scarhead that gets in our way.”

**************

Raven was curled up in a ball in the far corner of the dark room she had called home for the last two weeks. Her captors had removed her blorash jelly restraints for the first time in her entire stay in the Yuuzhan Vong temple. She was afraid of what that may have meant and she was in no physical condition to fight off any attempts to gain information from her.

Not that she had any more information to give.

After feeling her chances of rescue diminish in a fiery and agonizing eruption in the Force she had finally succumbed to the brutal interrogations of High Commander Falas Draisa. She had given the Yuuzhan Vong everything they had wanted to know and now Raven was sure thousands more were going to die facing a prepared defense of an already well defended world.

And now she realized how much of a grave mistake she had made. Maybe it had been an hour or only a few minutes, time seemed to take an eternity to pass for her in recent weeks, after Draisa had finished draining every ounce of information from her that she had felt the presences in the Force again. They were hurt and in pain, but they were alive and they were there. As were her chances of rescue, but now she wasn’t sure she was worthy of rescue. She feared that the soldiers sent to recover her were just wasting their time and their efforts had been for nothing.

She wanted to cry and to scream and to bang her head against the yorik coral walls but didn’t have the energy or bodily fluids available to spend. All she could do was lay in her corner and think about what she had done and the damage she had caused.

A Jedi was supposed to protect life not put thousands of lives in the path of certain death. She had failed as a Jedi, she had failed her Order and she had failed the galaxy. Her well intentioned trip behind enemy lines had done more harm than good. She closed her eyes and tried to slip into a healing trance. Her abilities in the Force were starting to diminish as her ability to focus decreased more and more each day.

For one brief moment she felt as if she was going to achieve the calm focus needed to enter a healing trance but a sudden swirling anger swept over her in the Force. Her eyes shot open and she probed the vortex of anger which dissolved into three separate Force presences as she concentrated on them, two of them the sources of anger, one burning brighter than the other, and the third presences was just painful, tired resignation.

They were close. Real close.

Though she couldn’t see it she heard the portal to the dark room open with a sickening squelch that she had come to ignore. There was yelling in three different languages. One was the guttural snarls and barks of the Yuuzhan Vong the second was a fluid language that she had not heard before but had to be native to her galaxy and the third was welcomed Galactic Basic.

A solid thud echoed off the yorik coral floor no less than a meter to her left. She could make out two shapes moving in the shadows as the portal to the room squelched once more and plunged the room into total darkness again.

“Hut’uune.” one of the voices yelled in the direction of the portal.

A coughing sound began to rise from the area the thud had resounded from. There was a cracking sound to her right and suddenly the room was lit in a yellow-green glow. One of the soldiers tossed two Chemsticks onto the floor and glanced around the room. His eyes landing on Raven.

“Jedi Varos?” he asked. He was large and wearing body armor that seemed to be blacker than the darkness she had occupied before his arrival. He had said her name and it sounded so foreign to her that she didn’t recognize it immediately. He drew closer to her “Are you Raven Varos?” his voice had rose somewhat in volume, not quite shouting but just a little more than yelling.

She nodded her head forgetting how to use her mouth to form words. She had known the soldiers were on the planet for sometime now but she had never really expected them to find her. Hope had finally left her completely only to be slightly rekindled into what she was certain was false hope.

“Well at least our luck is turning.” a second face materialized next to the first one.

The first soldier knelt down in front of her and activated a third Chemstick and held up near her face. He gently grabbed hold of her chin and turned her head from left to right examining her wounds.

“They worked her over pretty good.” the second man said “You sure you want to go through with this Rixa?”

“Yeah don’t worry about it.” a third voice said between coughs “I’m tougher than I look.”

She felt sadness well up in the first soldier and she found it odd for a moment. Maybe they were friends and the soldier just didn’t want to see one of his teammates suffer.

“It…it doest matter how…tough you…are.” She stammered. Her voice cracked and tore at the back of her throat as painfully as any combat knife.

“What?” the first soldier asked.

“It doesn’t matter how tough you are.” her voice becoming stronger “He will break before its over. You all will.”

A serious look fell on the first soldier’s face “Did you?”

She looked away unable to meet his eyes.