Star Wars - Aliit Nehutyc

Chapter 4: Ambush

They had been walking for about an hour through a patch of trees when they came to a small clearing. The ground was covered with colourful autumn leaves, mixing in with the pure snow.

"Let's pause here and take a few moments to rest," Kad said, cracking his neck. They stopped walking and stood in a circle. Kad saw a group of tracks leading into the woods.

"Are you all seeing this?" Kad asked, switching his helmet to infrared view. The tracks showed up as red in his HUD. "These look like new tracks."

"Probably just one of the other vode coming out to hunt some game for dinner," Opakki said, looking down at the tracks.

"Yeah, or an ambush," sneered Darra.

"You may be right, Darra," Kad said. He pulled a lightsabre from his belt and twirled it between his fingers.

"You secretly a Jedi or something?" Kar asked suspiciously.

"No way. My father killed a Jedi once. This is the trophy from that kill. It's the only thing I have to remember my family," Kad said, his voice drifting away.

The noise of cracking leaves and crunching snow and the drawing of blasters filled their helmets. It seemed to surround them. Sev Vizsla stepped out from the tree line followed by at least fifteen other Mandalorians. twirling a blaster around his index finger. The blaster stopped spinning and he gripped the handle in his hand.

"Nothing personal kid. Just doing my job," he said then pulled the trigger while aiming at Kad. Blaster fire echoed through the clearing, and a plasma bolt whizzed past Kad's head and into the trunk of a tree behind him. Then, mayhem broke loose.

"You liar! You traitor! First, you try to blow me up, and now you ambush me?" Kad yelled in outrage. Kad twirled his fingers in the air, a signal for his friends to get into a tight circle and focus fire. He drew his blaster and began firing.

"Hold on a second kid, what the heck do you mean I blew you up? I did no such thing. As soon as I left, I came here with my ad'ike," Sev said, still firing at Kad.

"You set up detonators in the fuel tanks of our speeder bikes," Kad said, igniting his father's lightsabre. The green blade pulsed from the hilt, melting several snowflakes that were descending to the ground. Kad spun the blade quickly and deflected a few bolts from Sev's blaster.

"That must have been this Squib fellow I found lurking by your speeders, pal," Sev said. He grunted in pain as a blaster bolt slammed into his beskar chest plate and shoved him backwards. Sev's comrades fell to the ground as their blaster fire was reflected at them by Kad's lightsabre. Sev kept firing, but Kad was advancing with his lightsabre, dodging each blast. Finally, Kad's lightsabre was right up against Sev's neck.

"Make one more move, and you die," Kad whispered into Sev's helmet.

"Kid, I know when I've been beaten," Sev said, dropping his blaster. Kad pulled away the lightsabre and pulled out a pair of beskar handcuffs and clipped them onto Sev's arms.

"Let's go, traitor," Kad said, shoving him forward. Sev resisted, and Kad shoved harder. Sev fell to the ground and rolled onto his shoulder. He stood up three feet away from Kad, who drew his blaster. Sev was faster and pulled a spare blaster from in his boot and fired at Darra. It went through her undersuit and made a clean wound in her leg. "Oh shoot," murmured Darra as she collapsed into the snow. Kad ran over to Darra, who now, had her hands cupped over a bloody hole in the side of her flight suit.

"Echoy'la, Kar, Opakki, get that traitor. I'll help Darra," Kad ordered, time slowing for him. He ripped a wad of gauze from a pouch on his belt, applied a salve of Bacta, and wrapped the wound.

"Did you sanitize that?" asked Darra gritting her teeth.

"It's Bacta. It does the sanitizing for you. Don't worry, in a couple of hours you'll be good as new," Kad said, tying off the gauze. Darra rolled her eyes. "That'll be the day," she murmured then sucked in her breath as her leg was jostled.

"You, okay?" Kad asked, trying not to move her leg too much.

"I'll live," she said. Kad pulled off her helmet and sat it on the ground.

"Hold still, I've got a stim-pack that will boost the healing process," Kad said, pulling a small stim pack from his belt.

Darra looked at the needled, shut her eyes, and groaned. "Must you use the needle? Can't I take it orally?"

"Haven't you taken a stim shot before? There is no oral stim. It'll be quick and painless," Kad said. "Ow," yelped Darra.

"I didn't even put it in yet," stated Kad flatly, "Suck it up." He slid the needle into her neck and injected the stim.

Kad pulled the needle out of her neck and tossed it into the snow. Darra rubbed her neck at the injection site and winced. "Seriously Darra? I use these every day and don't feel a thing."

"Easy for you to say. I just power through it," she growled. Kad pulled off his helmet and ran his hand through his sweaty hair.

"Is your leg feeling better yet?" Kad asked, pulling out his blaster and reloading it.

"Yeah, but now my neck hurts," she said as she proceeded to stand up.

"You look rough," she chuckled as she leaned against a tree then grinned, "Perhaps you need some of that stim."

"You know how many of the scars on my face are real? None of them. Fake, all of 'em. I do need an energy stim though, I'm tired as heck." Kad pulled an orange stim packet from his belt, pulled off the cap, and stabbed it into his neck. His eyes closed as the liquid flowed into his veins. It burned like it always did. He hated the feeling but knew he needed it. It was what had kept him alive.

"Fake scars eh," murmured Darra, "Pitiful."

"How is it pitiful? It automatically gives me a reputation. When people see my scars they say, 'he's been in his fair share of battles,' which I have." He pulled the stim pack out of his neck and dropped it.

"Fake scars are for cowards," Darra said rubbing her neck, then she glanced at the needles on the ground, "You going to pick those up?"

Kad laughed and drew his blaster. "I use 'em for short-range target practice." He stepped back a few steps, sighted up, and blew the first pack to dust. He spun the blaster around his finger and grinned. "Bullseye."

Darra rolled her eyes and said, "Boys." Kad looked up and saw three armoured people walking towards them, dragging a body behind.

"Who'd you kill this time, Opakki?" Kad asked, holstering his blaster.

"Oh, just that traitor who shot Darra and would've killed you," she said, tossing the dead body in front of Kad. Kad pulled the helmet off the limp body and shuddered as he saw Sev's dead face staring up at him, grinning.

"Thanks, I guess." Kad's voice was cold and lost.

"What's wrong, ner vod?" Echoy'la asked.

"Just that he didn't deserve to die. He was doing what the Death Watch forces their members to do."

"It was his choice to join," Darra shot back.

"Actually, he didn't want to join. I hacked into the Death Watch private comms and was scrolling through some of the comm-chatter from Death Watch over the past few months, and I read that he was forced into Death Watch. I guess they've gone back to their old ways of forced adoption," Kad said, staring into the woods.