Dorn: A Star Wars Story

10. Vengeance

"I want all squads ready for deployment the second we hit Tund space," I called over my shoulder as I began strapping my armor on. I picked up my helmet and ran a thumb across the brim with a long exhale before I slipped it on. The HUD flickered to life and the readings all came up crystal clear as I glanced between my squadmates. No one had raised a question about my sudden diversion to Tund. Whether that was good or bad, I wasn't sure.

Horran moved to stand beside me, "Major... Why Tund, of all places?"

"I have no idea," I replied before I turned to look at him. He was also helmeted up and I couldn't even begin to guess what was going on behind the bucket. "If you mean why I'm sending us there..."

"It's that box, isn't it?" As he asked, he turned from his squad back to me with a shake of his head, "How is it speaking to you?"

"Force users often do not need another of their kind to communicate via the Force itself," Novaran approached in his Chiss uniform as he began to check over his breather. "Anyone can be communicated with by a spirit if it is strong enough, which is causing me some concern, to be sure. Whoever this Sith is, they were and still are very strong."

Horran shifted from one foot to another and crossed his arms as our squad finished up their preparations, "I don't like it. Major, I say that we dump the box off on the Reclamation Service when we get back."

Novaran nodded and frowned at me, "I agree with Horran's assessment, Major. That would likely be best. We do not know the motives of this particular spirit, and I fear its influence may be... dangerous for prolonged periods of time."

I had to agree, but as the Chiss finished, the only thing I heard rambling in the back of my skull was a karking chuckle. "Don't get me wrong," I grabbed my DLT and checked its firing mechanism one final time, "I don't like him either, but right now, he's the only lead we've got." Peek bumped against my leg with a small chirp, and I reached down and patted the top of his chassis as I knelt down so he could hop up into his lift strapped to my back. "Regardless, we have bigger things to worry about right now."

"Dorn," Farthen's voice came over the comms, "we're arriving at Tund. ETA is approximately five minutes."

"Thank you, Captain," I turned to see my squad waiting on my, buckets off. "Hopefully, we get them this time. We don't know what we'll find down there, but whatever happens, we stay together. Understood?"

"Yes, Major," Nyra nodded as they all slid their buckets on. "We won't let you down."

---

The forests of Tund were dark and strangely humid. We stalked through the underbrush as we wound our way from the Summa's shuttle that we had managed to land in a small clearing. I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching us from the foliage, but our sensors time and time again picked up absolutely no signs of life.

It remained this way until we reached another clearing with no signs of life, which was, in and of itself, suspicious enough. It was littered with debris, and I could see the entrance to an old base in the distance. I couldn't tell who it belonged to from that far away, and with still no signs of life anywhere within view, we made our way into the clearing.

What we hadn't been expecting with the sudden volley of blaster fire coming straight at us. We all dove behind over with more than a few colorful swears before I noticed that we were short one person.

"Rook!" Nyra shouted, and I jerked my head to the sound to see the large trooper lying behind a piece of debris, clutching his leg. "He's been shot!"

"Leave him!" Kast called out as he dove behind another old barricade. "You'll be blown full of holes if you try and grab him!"

I don't know if it was my lack of a will to live or old instincts taking over the thinking part of my admittedly small brain, but I jumped out from behind my cover and began making a mad dash across the no-man's land between us and the dug in rebels. I hadn't moved like that since... huh, since my training exercises with Kando. In fact, my body almost seemed to remember exactly how to effectively clear every single mode of debris. Swerve, slide, jump, pivot, all while avoiding blaster fire that was, this time, lethal. Actually... the more I consider it, I vaguely wonder of the blaster fire in the simulations was live. I unholstered the blaster at my side and fired off one shot as I cleared a barricade and took out the sharpshooter who had taken Rook down in the first place before I slid up behind the almost too small piece of debris that was getting holey-er by the minute.