Author's Note: If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

As always, I continue to hope that I am doing justice to the spirit of Star Wars as well the respective authors and characters from which I borrow. Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

Mandalorian (Mando'a) words

Buy'ce (BOO-chay, BOO-shay): helmet; Colloquially: pint, bucket

Ika (EE-kah): diminutive suffix written as 'ika - also added to a name as a very familiar or childhood form, e.g, Ord'ika - Little Ordo

Ner vod (nair-vohd): "my brother/my sister"; colloquially also "my friend"

Vode (VOH-day): brothers, sisters, comrades

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Chapter 68

I'm going with you to that hangar. If Princess Arlesse is with them, I want one last chance to reason with her before you take her by force. I'm prepared to deal with her as a prisoner, but I'm hoping to avoid that scenario because if she becomes a prisoner then nothing about her will ever be the same.

Moff Gillard Harkin's conversation to TK-2857 upon discovering the location of the ship, Galaar Woor

Tochin Moon III, 87 Days after Order 66

The journey through the miner's tunnels had taken nearly two hours as they had come across one intersection that had been blocked off, and it forced them to backtrack a third of the way from where they had come before they could find another pathway.

The chaos from the world above continued during most of their escape. As they neared their final destination and left the main town behind them, the commotion faded away in the distance.

One final square of artificial light was now looming ahead of the group, and Jas indicated to them that this was where the hangar was located.

As they had with all the previous grates and openings, they stopped and clung to the walls. They silently assessed what was going on above by listening for the slightest sound.

They concentrated on the sounds of footsteps, voices, and movement of any kind. Nothing was heard, but that didn't convince the former soldiers that they were safe to just emerge from their hiding.

Moving back down the corridor a few feet, they remained in an area that was wide enough to crouch against the walls and still have a small amount of room in front of them. While in this space, they were out of earshot from anyone lurking overhead, and they decided to take this moment to regroup.

Tarj was the first to speak, skepticism clearly evident in his tone. He may have been out of combat for quite some time, but he still retained everything he was ever trained when it came to security and making decisions for a squad. "I don't like it. Tochin might not have the busiest ports, and for it to be this quiet, they must have put a lockdown in place."

"Agreed," Dusty responded. "We both know that the first basic rule of tracking is to close off the exits. Even late-model stormies would be taught that."

Chora wasn't one who wanted to sit back in the shadows and wait for rescue. She had her own knowledge and training, and she wanted to help brainstorm some way for them to escape so she chimed in with her own thoughts. "I don't plan to be trapped here until Harkin calls off the search. We need to do recon and find out what we're really up against."

Dusty snickered at Chora's enthusiasm and looked to Tarj. "She's so innocent. Guess you two didn't have much time to get acquainted before she followed you down the mole-rat hole?"

Tarj was grateful for the dim lighting that hid his sudden embarrassed flush. He really didn't feel like telling Dusty how Chora had blindsided him, kissing him without any warning and how he enjoyed it in return.

He was still trying to wrap his mind around what she saw in him and why just today he realized his attraction to her when they had spent eight months under the same roof without so much as a flirtatious glance.

Then, he pushed the thought aside as he realized that his gaze had inadvertently landed on Chora. He had no idea how long he was staring at her like some love-crazed adolescent, and it was shameful for a clone commander—former or not—to behave this way during a mission. However, after the mission was another matter entirely, and Tarj quickly shut off his thoughts again before they landed him an even greater snicker from Dusty.

"Just shut up, ner vod," Tarj muttered. "If you're the brains of this operation, put them to use."

Jas tried to ignore the bantering between Dusty and Tarj, but he found he could not. Their teasing was so familiar and yet so different. The familiarity reminded him of his days on Kamino, when Crimson and Tarj were constantly sharing disagreements and holding unofficial contests. A part of Jas longed for those days, those bittersweet times when he and his brothers were still a whole unit.

And, yet the bantering between his brothers now was different in that they had something other than weapons, techniques, and Gan's affections to argue over. They were teasing in a way that was... normal.

They sounded like regular men, not clones. They truly were brothers and not because of bio-engineered genetics that coded them as such, but because they shared common experiences and bonds.

"You want the brains?" Dusty further pushed, trying not to break out into laughter, "Then talk to your brother in the bucket."

Jas sighed as he watched everyone's eyes turn to him. He held up one hand with his index finger pointing upwards, the all-too-familiar "wait one" and used his buy'ce to tap into the camera feed that was located on the outside of their ship that the Nulls had dubbed the Galaar Woor.

Neither Dusty nor Jas had questioned why the name translated in Basic to "Hawk Wind." The Galaar Woor had been adequately named, as on their test run of flying her, she had unmatched speed and grace only worthy of a skilled avian.

In addition to lending the ship to Jas and Dusty, the Nulls had also included a number of "modifications" to the vessel. The dual video feed had been just one of those modifications. The Galaar Woor had been fitted with two sets of cameras, one on the top of the hull and one just below the cargo bay.

Trying not to get lost in the thoughts of all the help their brother Nulls had provided, Jas decided he could thank them somehow later. For now, though, he needed his concentration on the mission of getting them all free of Tochin. Turning his attention back to the video feed, Jas studied what the images were offering. The bottom camera showed the layout of the hangar as if he were standing on the floor inside the open-topped room.

The images from the top hull, though, gave a hawk-bat's-eye view as though perched on some high scaffolding. Jas could clearly see from the overhead angle that there was a squad of sixteen stormtroopers based in various angles around the crates. What Jas found even more intriguing was that Moff Harkin himself had accompanied the squad to this landing bay.

To Jas, that meant only one thing: Their ship was the only off-world vehicle on Tochin. It wasn't something they didn't expect in their plans, but it just showed that Harkin wasn't entirely a puppet and he thought things through for himself.

"Okay, so what's the weather report, ner vod?" Tarj asked after a few long moments when he saw that Jas had obviously been concentrating on something inside the bucket.

Jas kept his attention on the video images, watching for anything to change while he addressed his brother. "Stormie squadron with a sprinkle of moff."

Chora glanced at the princess before she looked to the cloned men. "How do you expect to escape if Harkin already knows your plan?"

"Because there's no other option," Jas answered as he looked to Les'ika. He saw how she looked at him with the same trust that she had onboard Hazar's ship. There was no mistaking her faith in him or his brothers because she knew that any alternative to their escape was unthinkable.

Dusty took over formulating a plan by laying a few things onto the ground while Jas kept his lights illuminated on the dirt path below them so they could set up the objects.

"Okay, then, give us the layout of what we're dealing with," Dusty requested.

Jas took a few of the small credit chips Dusty offered and set them down to indicate the location of the crates. He then used Dusty's false identification chip to be their ship. Putting small indentations into the dirt with his fingers, Jas marked how many stormtroopers were staked out where.

With just those few objects, the soldiers were able to map out what their potential escape route looked like and what kind of ambush lay in wait for them.

Studying the placement of the Galaar Woor in comparison to the crates and stormtroopers, the former Republic soldiers already began wrapping their heads around how to get past the blockade.

The Imperials had been sure to concentrate their attention on the entryway to the hangar rather than any place on the floor. Unfortunately, though, the grate was too far from the ship to really make a safe run for it.

Jas and the others knew that they needed to somehow overtake Harkin and his stormtroopers, and their one advantage at this moment was surprise. The Imperials may have found the ship, but they still hadn't discovered the group's whereabouts.

The clones knew that was the reason why the Imperials were waiting around an empty hangar with their attention on a doorway and not carrying on in their search.

"The key is going to be a distraction," Tarj muttered thoughtfully while he rubbed his chin and studied the makeshift floor plan.

"Flash-bomb won't be enough," Jas replied while he kept comparing their model to the images in his buy'ce. "They'll be expecting something like that, especially with the way they're using the cargo for cover."

"We need something much more unexpected," offered Dusty. "I'm just not certain what."

Chora glanced at Tarj and then to the others. "I can do it. I can be your distraction."

Arlesse blinked as she watched the soldiers around her working on an escape, and she knew that the moment Chora showed her face, Harkin or the stormtroopers would instantly kill her. She was a palace guardian, the exact kind of people the Imperials had been hunting and executing.

Arlesse didn't want to see the woman hurt, especially now that she had seen how Tarj had begun developing new affections towards the former guardian. The last thing she wanted was to see the man who had been her loyal guardian and brother for nearly a year miss out on the possibility of having Chora share in his short life.

Arlesse knew she wasn't trained like any of these soldiers were, but maybe that was what their plan needed. Maybe she needed to come face to face with Harkin because it was the last thing he would expect, and it was the one thing he wanted most.

Realizing that she had no other choice, she understood how it would give the others the chance they needed for escape, and Arlesse was certain that if things went wrong, Harkin would not outright kill her.

He would certainly imprison her again and no doubt force her into the arrangement he wished to share between her royal blood and his so-called Imperial nobility, but in all her encounters with Harkin, Arlesse had seen that the moff actually had no desire to ever harm her.

Hearing the fear in her uncertain and soft voice, Arlesse knew she had no choice but to offer what her vode needed of her. She needed to make the sacrifice now that she never had the chance to offer to the cloned man who had been killed by Hazar's torture. "No, I have to do it. I need to be the distraction."

Immediately, Jas shook his head at the concept that Les'ika would put herself in the line of fire. The whole point of this mission was to come back for her. He had spent nearly a year imagining their lives together and there were moments in the last couple weeks that had virtually killed his hope for that. Being with her again had showed him that what he sought should not be taken away from him.

In fact, just a couple hours ago, he had finally found her and felt like they were going to have that image in his mind of their home. The last thing he could consciously do now was put his wife in the line of fire and risk losing her once more.

"Les'ika, it's suicide..."

"Maybe it will work, ner vod," Tarj interrupted quickly, catching onto Les'ika's logic and why she would use herself to distract Harkin. Tarj had seen the way the Imperial moff had interacted with the princess for the last couple months, and he knew that only Les'ika would have the uncanny knack to bring Harkin to a halt.

Jas clenched his fists, as anger and frustration overwhelmed his thoughts. It was not supposed to end like this, and he wondered just how much of a fool he had been to think otherwise.

Arlesse put her hand on Jas' arm, aware of how he was reluctant to even consider what was their only option. She watched his helmeted head turn in her direction and then his hands reach up to take it off.

"What if I lose you?" he asked her gently.

"I know enough about Harkin to know that he won't hurt me," she told Jas softly. "But, if he gets any of you..."

"Harkin won't get any of us," Dusty suddenly chimed in, and his artificially colored, light brown eyes immediately flashed with some crazed brainstorm. "You're going to be our distraction, Les'ika. I just thought of the most ridiculous and insane way to make this work."

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