Worth: A Star Wars Story (ON TEMP HIATUS)

22. Like a Shadow

The tunnel was dark and smelled like spent blaster casings and burning metal. We were stepping over obliterated droids an around fragments of exploded detonators of Sarkhai build, and I realized that the members of the Sethuna Brigade had been fighting hard over the past hours to keep the tunnel clear, and the results were impressive if the lack of their bodies was any indication.

"Scans showing lifeforms ahead, almost a klick," Havur turned to Demar and I as Aran moved up with Vhetin, almost filling up the entire path as they placed themselves on either side of us. If it had been anyone in my squad, I feel like we would have had comfortably enough room for one or two more Clones, but the Commandos filled up their space.

I drifted back to be with my boys as the Commandos began readying their weapons. "Be ready for close quarters fighting if they're not friendlies," I turned over my shoulder and saw Tor nod as Red and Grek pulled out their own weapons. Ryder was laser focused on the path ahead, but I could tell he heard me from the way he rolled his shoulders.

It took several more minutes of walking when we were hit with bright lights. The Commandos' visors seemed to filter it out, and I saw Demar hold up a hand to give us an all-clear. "Hold fire! It's Clones!" One of the soldiers popped out dressed in a uniform similar to Hollis' minus the ornate drapings and with the golden metal painted a matte black. The helmets they wore seemed to cover their entire heads and looked like they were vaguely based off of some creature, a faint blue glow emitting around where their eyes should be indicating the lit visors hidden somewhere beneath what looked to be just flat black metal. "Master Sergeant Onrei Dremu of Sethuna Brigade, at your service."

"Alright, Master Sergeant. Hit us with a Sitrep," I nodded and the Sarkhai gestured for us to follow him past their blockade. The perimeter that they had established went both ways to keep the tunnel plugged from the inside out.

"Sethun is occupied. They had plants inside the city just waiting for negotiations to go south - more than your Commandos were warned about. I haven't heard hide no hair of them since Sethun's shields went down," Onrei nodded to his team, and soon the tunnels were awash with the blue glow of a holomap table. "Something about this feels bad, Captain. It feels like we missed something or someone that's making this harder than it should be. There was no way that they should have been able to take Sethun that easily without being fed information beforehand."

"You're thinking traitors," Demar turned to him the same time I did, visor glowing bright blue in the near black tunnel.

Onrei nodded again, "I am. I don't think they're Sarkhai, though."

"Why's that?" Ryder asked as some of the Brigade chuckled.

"They're getting destroyed by the wildlife out there. A Sarkhai mole would have been able to give them routes through all of the tunnels like these that you can access from underneath the city and they would have been able to take Nyscha by now with info like that," I could hear the amusement in Onrei's voice, "but instead they've been trying to get those driller droids to the undercity by foot. They've lost at least a platoon of droids to Nexu packs alone."

"Okay, then how are we supposed to get there?" Havur asked, gesturing to the tunnel's exit with his rifle.

Onrei gestured for us to keep following him, and soon we found ourselves in the midday sun at the edge of even more forests. "Going on foot from here is suicide, so we're giving you a little present," Onrei gestured before him to several large creatures. They shook their glowing crests and looked at us with sharp teeth and clicking mandibles, growling more like wild big cats than whatever they were, four eyes  blinking at us. "These are Amber Crested Mawvorr. Native beasts of this jungle and cousins of ones found elsewhere in the galaxy. They can get you to Sethun without attracting much notice from other fun members of the local fauna and will return here when you're done. Just... don't dismount too early or they'll run off and leave you. They can carry two people each. I'll come with you to the city and you can take it from there while we hold the tunnels to keep anyone from sneaking up on you."