Dorn: A Star Wars Story

39. Vode

"Why do we have to go to Dxun?" Freis asked with a wrinkle of her nose as the Summa cruised through hyperspace.

"Because Khomo is on Dxun."

"What happened to Rishi?"

"Guess we'll need to ask him," I was focused on reading a report and heard Farthen let out a long groan as Hipshot laughed manically from the cockpit. "There better not be money being exchanged up there."

"Nope!" Hipshot laughed, "Just betting on who gets to be the pilot on the trip back! And I just won!"

"You cheated!" I heard Farthen groan again. "You had to have!"

"Savor your last few moments in command, Jahres, because on the way back, she is mine!"

I smiled to myself as I continued reading my reports. My men were getting deployed to search for the Wayfinders at the behest of Supreme Leader Ren. Following his rather magnificent rise to power following the death of Snoke, which no one was particularly sad about, if I was being honest, we were tasked with discovering these Wayfinders at any cost. The allure of a planet with great resources that could put us even further ahead of the Resistance and any hope that they had of besting us was something no one was going to pass up no matter what.

I still hated the politics.

Hux was angry.

Ren was angry.

The Supreme Council was angry.

Everyone was fighting.

And then there was us, just trying to do our jobs.

Not that you'd know it with how we were getting yanked every which way. It was stupid. Infuriating. Annoying, even. All I knew was that getting Khomo to help us as a smokescreen between us and Venn was going to be great, and if we could rile up the Resistance in some form then it would be even better.

Nyra sat down beside me and leaned back in her chair, glancing over at me as she rolled up the sleeves of her old Imperial sweater and crossed them over her chest, "Thinking he'll help us?"

"I have faith in Khomo," I replied, finally lowering my reports and looking up at her. "I just hope that I'm not taking advantage of him."

"So long as he agrees to it, what's the harm?" She shrugged and rested her leg on the table, leaning back in her chair a bit.

"Approaching Dxun," Farthen called out from the cockpit, and we all got up and ready to go. I was ditching the uniform in favor of my old jacket again. I figured showing up in any Imperial-adjacent uniform was asking for trouble, and the rest of the crew followed my lead. I was bringing my crew along this time just in case we needed a show of force for whatever reason, but I wasn't too worried. I had total faith in Khomo.

"This is Camp Ordo Tower requested identification from unregistered vessel. If you do not give appropriate identification, we will open fire and fighters will be sent to intercept you."

"This is The Summa. We're here to speak with Chief Khomo Ordo. Tell him that Dorn is onboard." Farthen spoke as he sent the coordinates. I saw Hipshot turn to him and raise his eyebrows as Farthen shrugged. It seemed like no one was sure if this was actually going to work.

There was a silence before the tower returned. "You have been given permission to land. A ground party will be there to meet you."

--

We landed on a little remote pad and stepped out to be greeted by a ground party of about fifty Mandos, all armored to the teeth, standing on the ramparts around us with weapons at the ready. I walked out ahead and looked up, seeing one Mando lower his rifle. I would have recognzied Khomo anywhere.