Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has voted and commented on the story so far and read this story so far! If you have any writing tips, please feel free to comment.  

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

Mandalorian (Mando'a) words

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

Di'kut (DEE-koot): fool, idiot, useless individual; context-dependent: can mean jerk, moron, etc.

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

Vode an: meaning "Brothers All", was an ancient Mandalorian war chant sung in Mando'a. During his training of Clone Troopers the of the Galactic Republic, Jango Fett revised a number of chants, including Vode An, replacing traditional Mandalorian keywords with more appropriate Republic ones. In this instance, it is presumable that he replaced "Mandalore" with "Coruscant". The chant was sung by the clone troopers with the accompaniment of drums and horns

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Chapter 7

Since she was a child, I never stopped Arleese from viewing the galaxy with an innocent heart, and as many times as I wanted to expose her to the realistic and unpleasant side of politics, I just could never bring myself to destroy the safe fantasy I created for her to live within. I made the mistake of overprotecting her because she is all I have. I thought it was more important for me to be her loving father than to be a king who would teach her how to play the twisted games that take place in the royal court and in the rest of the galaxy. 

King Vollan Psach admitting his faults to the Republic negotiator prior to Crimson's deployment on Tochin's Moon II

Onboard Fatal Bliss, 784 Days ABG

Gath yanked hard on the controls, watching the gaseous atmosphere of Moon III grow murkier while the Fatal Bliss pushed closer toward it. Had he not been fighting for his life and that of his brothers, he might have found the frosted-looking halo of gas around the planet fascinating. 

Maybe one day, if they survived this, he might take some time to view the astronomy holos of the planets and appreciate how the sight can be beautiful as opposed to being the sign of a deadly encounter.

Pulling on the controls again and then trying to maintain his grip, Gath pushed the frivolous idea aside. If they survived this mission, there would never be time to enjoy much of anything. 

If they weren't assigned to another operation, it would cool-down in stasis until new mission orders arrived. 

With the accelerated aging they suffered, stasis was the only way to guarantee that any of them would stay in the prime of their lives while not deployed.

A shudder bucked the hard, and the controls threatened to break free from Gath's grasp.

 He ignored the warning light above the canopy, the one that flashed in panic and wailed with a non-stop whine. It seemed to be screaming at him that all the shields had disintegrated, and right now that was the only part of his concern.

Beside him, Mouse fought with the navigational controls trying to get the computer to comprehend that the moon was rapidly coming up from below them as opposed to coming at them from behind. 

Gath heard his brother mutter something about hot wiring a di'kut in places the sunshine has never seen.

Gath smirked at that thought. It was probably the most animated Mouse had been in a long time.

 Suddenly, the ship lifted slightly and the display monitor between the two of them scrolled through lines of data that were describing the atmospheric gases as well as providing them with an indicator that estimated the time left before impact.

"Maybe it was better not knowing," Mouse grumbled, aware that the time was showing mere minutes left until they would begin a fireballing descent.

"Don't worry, ner vod," Gath said. "At least now the computer know which way is up again."

"Picked a hell of a time to become an optimist," Mouse said softly, not surprised to hear Gath's quiet chuckle in response.

Dusty's voice came over the helmet communications.

 He had returned to the engine room and was working on rerouting power from whatever systems he could in order to buy them more time. "I've got as much power diverted from the life support and internal lighting systems as I can. Try once again to regenerate the shields."

Mouse ran his hands over a series of buttons on the control panel, and the shields had regenerated to only thirty percent. He opted to divert them to where the cockpit was located, and he stretched what he could to the underside of the ship.

 It was better than nothing, but Mouse doubted that even the thin shielding would do much for any length of time, and he still feared that the moment they hit the barrier of unprocessed gases surrounding Moon III their short lives would be even shorter. 

At the very least, though, he knew that the miniscule shielding would delay their fiery descent into the atmosphere by a few seconds. And, that was not a reassuring thought by any means.

"You probably brought us ten seconds, ner vod," Gath said.

"Time to read that novel I've been procrastinating," Mouse mumbled.

"Hey, our lives are short anyway," Dusty shot back. "Ten seconds for us is at least a full day to a civie."

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Jas had kept his helmet communications open so that he could hear the conversation amongst his brothers, but he kept it on a private channel so that the princess would not be able to listen to them. 

The last thing he needed her to hear was his brothers joking about their remaining moments of life. Being bred only for the purpose of war left a spoiled and dark sense of humor in most clones, and the vast majority of civvies could not appreciate or accept such concepts so lightly.

The ship's glow lamps quickly shut down and Jas calmly clicked on the lights connected to his helmet. Not being privy to the conversations and having no forewarning about the loss of the lighting, the princess pulled tighter toward him and her grasp on his hand seemed to tighten more.

Her voice filled with concern. "What happened?"

"They diverted the power," Jas explained. His words were soothing the way he had heard Gan talk to him when he was young and always afraid that one day the Kaminoans would take him for reconditioning. Keeping his voice calm, Jas spoke as though he had practiced this drill hundreds of times before and knew exactly what would be at the end of the exercise. It'll be okay."

Looking around the small prisoner cabin, Jas saw the secret compartment from where Hazar had emerged. Inspiration struck him, and he suddenly felt a flash of hope.

"Gath, I think there's an escape pod," he explained quickly. "Hazar didn't seem worried about the ship falling apart, and he had a certainty about escaping."

"Then, find it, Jas. It won't be long now before we burn up in the atmosphere."

Without thought, Jas took the advantage of the princess' grasp on his hand. He got to his feet, hauling her with him. "Ma'am, you need to come with me."

The young woman easily stood with him, but her grasp never relented. Jas had begun to think that she would follow him into Hell now if decided to go there. 

He smirked at that thought, the irony of it possibly true. If they burned up in the atmosphere, it may as well be Hell. It would probably be the worst pain he could ever imagine for at a couple seconds, especially if the lack of oxygen didn't kill him first.

Pushing aside the thought of becoming a shooting star, Jas entered the tight corridor and moved his head around so that the lights on his helmet could provide him with a better visual.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"I told you before," he replied calmly. He didn't want to give her falsified hopes in case he was wrong, and he decided to keep the answer vague. "You're going home."

Jas noted that the right side of the hallway had a narrow passageway that seemed to be parallel to the public hallway from where he and Dusty had entered the prison cell. 

He had a feeling that if they moved in that direction, they'd eventually return to the ship's cargo hold, and Jas was fairly certain that there was no escape pod in there.

Looking toward the left side of the hallway, the passageway seemed impassable, as it was a plasteel wall blocking the path. Jas looked at the wall for a moment and remembered what Gath had said earlier in the mission about mercenaries favoring hidden compartments in their ships. 

Their finding of the princess in an unadorned room was proof of Gath's suspicion. Jas decided it was probably a good guess to trust that instinct again. He pushed his free hand onto the wall and was disappointed when he saw nothing happen.

 Moving his eyes and spot lamps downward, he saw a small square at the bottom of the wall. I twas only a few inches in size, but it was placed off-center to the right side of the panel. 

Jas kicked it gently, and the larger panel popped open a few inches. The small square acted like a hidden doorknob, and the kick had released the lock- mechanism on the hidden door.

"Sorry, Ma'am," Jas said as he gently pried his hand from the princess. He hoped she wouldn't be offended that he needed both of his hands back. "Just stay close now."

Pushing the door to the side, Jas saw a small cabin that could fit three people tightly and four, uncomfortably. 

Considering the small size of the princess, Jas was pretty certain that all five of them would fit. They just might have to squeeze together a little closer than any of them had ever intended.

"I found the escape pod," Jas confirmed into his helmet. "It's in the crew quarters behind the prison cell. Dusty can lead the way. Her was here earlier."

"How did you know?" the princess asked.

Jas moved the princess into the cabin and pressed her into a corner where she would be safe and out of the way.

"Nothing on a merc's ship is what it seems," he explained as he began hitting the switches on the control panel, bringing the small pod to life. The quiet whine of the power filling the tiny craft was one of the most beautiful sound Jas had heard all day.

A loud bang suddenly struck the Fatal Bliss, throwing Jas against the pilot's seat. The princess let out a shout of pain, and Jas spared a look behind him. He saw that she had fallen onto her knees, landing on the floor.

The priority of getting the escape pod up and running overrode his sense of courtesy for the moment. Her father would just have to understand that unharmed didn't mean slightly bruised, and her father would have to understand that slightly bruise was better than not at all. 

Looking back at the control panel, Jas moved his eyes over every inch of it, fearing that the jolt to the ship had destroyed their only chance of escape.

 However, as he quickly inventoried that everything was still working in good order, he released a breath of relief. Jas turned on a screen and brought up the limited information he could find on the pod. It had minimal navigational controls but had a set of repulsors that would kick in when the craft was within a mile of the ground.

 Additionally, the small craft could also take a hard landing with minimal damage. Considering the other option was to burn in the atmosphere, Jas liked the limitations of the escape pod much better.

 He continued to move his hand around the controls, making sure the escape pod's engines were primed and ready.

Feeling a nagging moment of guilt for ignoring the young woman, Jas spared a moment to look at the princess. He saw that she had managed to get herself upright again, and as her eyes came to his visor he was surprised to see that she did not hold any contempt towards him for leaving her on the floor. 

Instead, there was a look of genuine hope in her blue irises. She had absolute confidence in Jas that he was going to hold true to his words about keeping her safe. It left him strangely uncomfortable, especially when he wasn't so certain himself that they were going to survive.

She spoke softly. "I don't even know..."

"Talk about nice and cozy," Dusty said as he and the others suddenly appeared. They were rushing to get into the pod, and Mouse closed the hatch behind them.

Gath took the pilot's seat and Dusty claimed the one next to it. Jas was forced between the two. Since Mouse was the last one to enter, he found himself lodged near the corner with the princess.

Another bang outside the pod foretold the fraction of time they had left to eject. Gath decided to not push fate and opted to push the buttons on the control panel instead. There was a sound like an explosion as the pod cleared from the burning wreckage of the Fatal Bliss.

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