Dorn: A Star Wars Story

5. Vengeant

"You know who we're missing?" I turned to Farthen as he spun around in the pilot's seat of the Summa and squinted at me. "Where's Peek?"

"On a... special assignment of sorts. He should be getting back soon," I rotated myself in my chair as I finished calibrating the starmaps and looked to Farthen with a smirk. "What, do you think I'd abandon the glue which holds this outfit together?"

"I miss him already," Farthen sighed dramatically and looked up at Horran as he and his squad loaded up the weapons in the armory. He glanced at me and dropped his voice, "What do you think about them?"

"They're scary, but scary is what we need."

"Fair."

Hipshot stepped onto the deck with a whistle and looked towards the cockpit with a grin, "Major, major... Please tell me I can fly this!"

I looked at Farthen who sighed and gave a reluctant nod, "Go ahead, but you're gonna be co-piloting with Farthen here."

"My co-pilot could be a gundark and it would be worth it," he cackled and leaped into the seat beside Farthen, running his hands lovingly over the controls. "What was her name again?"

"The Summa," Farthen quipped and shot him a defensive glare, "and you better not forget it."

"She's yours, isn't she?"

"Well... She really belongs to the Major, by Corellian street rules, but I fly her."

"Corellian what?"

I sat back in my seat and smirked as Hipshot turned to me and cocked one eyebrow. "I stole her, so she's mine."

"So... if I steal her from you...?"

Farthen snorted and rotated back to the command console, "He'd just kill you."

Hipshot blinked at him before he turned in his seat and nodded, "You know what? That's fair."

"Who tallied these marks in here?" Robin called from the back of the ship, poking his head out from one of the back rooms that I distinctly remember belonging to me and the boys back in the day.

"A trooper named Aurek. He counted how many times I got shot."

Robin stared at me and fully stepped out of the room, "Why are there eight of them?"

Long story.

Before I could reply, Horran came up to me and cleared his throat as two of his squad members moved up behind him. It was the first time I had seen them with their helmets off. The first of them looked to be his lieutenant, an Alderaanian woman with dark hair pulled tautly back from her sharp cheeks and an equally sharp scar tearing up the right side of her face. Beside her was a guy who made Aurek look tiny and whose entire face was riddled with scars and burns from the stars only knew what. "We're all packed up, Major. I wanted to introduce you to my two XO's."

"Two of them?" I stood up, and as I did the two came to attention.

"One for each squad back before I lost half of it. This big guy is Lieutenant Garyn Kace. What he lacks in brains, he makes up for in sheer muscle mass." As he spoke, the enormous man in front of me gave an eager nod at the mention of his bulk. He scared me a little, I can't lie. Horran continued, "And this is Captain Nyra Haleryck, my legitimate XO in terms of rank structure proper."

"My Alderaanian heritage won't be an issue, Major," she clasped her hands behind her back and directed her dark eyes to me with a frown. "My father was a loyal member of the Imperial Army since the days of the Republic."