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When You Give a Man Power
Chapter 48
“To anyone still alive after the crash, I need reports now on what resources we have. What ships are still functioning or can be scavenged? I need to know who is capable of fighting.” Jango continued to list things deemed mission-critical, what was not a necessity, what to do, etc.
I held Spice in my arms in a bridal carry while she remained unconscious after applying a stimpack to her while I went through the mess that was some of my weapons and equipment stored in my cargo ship. To my surprise and eternal gratitude to the heavens, some of my ship's guns remained functional after a few Republic starfighters had flown overhead.
They learned real quick that was a bad idea.
Despite the shields being down, multiple lasers impacting my ship, and atmospheric reentry the guns still worked. Not many of them beyond three which were two rotary and one cannon.
Bane limped over looking worse for wear. Picking up a stimpack I tossed it at him. He caught it to my surprise before giving it a look.
“What’s this?”
“An emergency. Called a stimpack, my homeworld's military uses them to fix broken bones or severe injuries hindering us while in the field. It’s safe.”
“Is this the same thing you used on her?” He nodded towards Spice's unconscious form.
“Yeah,” I said lightly glad that everyone on my ship made it.
I wouldn’t exactly say I would throw my life away for some of them but that didn’t mean I wanted them to die either. It mostly was because the more people we had alive the more of a chance we had of fighting off the Republic and getting out of here.
Bane hummed at my response. “Sounds useful. Depending on how much they cost I might be willing to get some.”
“We’ll talk shop if we get out of this alive,” I said flippantly already checking over the state of the ship.
“We’ll make it,” Jango said looking through my weapons, particularly eyeing the tarped machines in the corner, that I was glad I had the foresight to ensure they were securely locked down.
“Our plan is this-- I am going to send out an automated message to whatever survivors are left. We are going to secure this city and use its shields and people as a means to keep the Republic and Jedi from attacking. Corvo, how many battle droids do you have on this thing?”
“Was supposed to be sixty. But that might have gone down a couple of units after the crash. I have to do a headcount.” I listed off immediately, taking into account if any of them were damaged from the ship's crash.
Unlikely that they wouldn’t be operational but sometimes things happened that you would think wouldn’t. Plus I didn’t exactly test their stress levels when it came to an emergency crash landing onto a planet.
Bane gave a low whistle at that followed by Jango nodding. “Make it quick and I want those droids active now. I need them to hold key points in the city to ensure we have a good tight grip over it.”
Doing as ordered swiftly working around my ship checking over the droids seeing most of them were intact besides about a dozen who had some stiffness in their limbs or trouble moving them fast enough.
They all marched out with Jango decked out with a modified blaster rifle slung over his back and Bane had taken two blaster pistols with a carbine. Even had a few of my grenades tucked into his pouches.
Even Spice and Sun, both of whom were now back in action were checking out a few weapons that had their interest before turning when they heard the droids marching out like a legion of soldiers on parade.
“You will be reimbursed, Corvo. We need every edge we can get right now.” Jango said, nodding in my direction.
I waved him off and made a get on with it gesture towards Sun and Spice. “Don’t worry about it. Consider this on the house. And if that sounds shady then think of it as me paying each of you in advance for keeping me alive!” I said cheerfully for such a dreary and deadly situation we had found ourselves in.
Sun and Spice both looked at me before both smiled, gathering up what they liked. It wasn’t like the weapons cost me much in the grand scheme of things.
“Alright I want every one of you droids to get into that city and hold these points here,” Jango pulled out a small disc device that showed a hologram of the capital city with certain key points of the city marked with blinking red dots. “Here, and here. Your job is to hold those points and try not to kill any civilians. If they get any ideas then do what needs to be done, otherwise, we need them alive to keep the Republic away.”
“Affirmative.” A chorus of the Assaultron models acknowledged Jango's orders, each of them marching off into pre-designated groups that would complement each other as various squads filed out of the ship. The cargo bay doors opened with a great groan protesting the act.
It sounded more like a whale dying than the bay doors being opened. Shoving a finger into my ear to help ease the ringing, Jango stepped closer to me.
“Corvo, can you get your ship back to being able to fly, and how soon?” Jango asked me urgently like he had a million things to do but was prioritizing the most important ones.
“Don’t know the extent of the damage but I should be able to get it to fly but hyperspace is up in the air. The damage was already bad before we crashed. Could be worse now.” I told him being completely honest. This was a situation where we didn't need any lying or backstabbing to happen.
Everything is laid out honestly for everyone. We didn’t need mistrust amongst one another when our lives were at stake.
“Have your astromech assess the damage and begin repairs.” Before Jango could say anything further I drew my blaster pistol aimed at the open cargo hold with Jango and Bane shortly following me.
Aimed at the empty cargo hold door before a figure stepped into view. “Jango? We’re here.” A Zabrak said, sounding unsure.
“In here, get yourself some equipment. How many of you are left?”
“Me and seven others. Come on guys.” He said, waving over his shoulder. They waltzed in eyeing the interior of my ship particularly the numerous weapons I had managed to get somewhat organized.
Glancing off to the side, thankful the maglocks kept our ships from getting damaged and thrown around inside. If it came down to it I could in my headhunter and flee. Not that I was going to do that as my first option. Jango and the group needed me and I wanted answers for the stunt Jango pulled in the asteroid field.
I glanced over at Jango who was explaining the situation and how each of them needed to hold particular points of the city. Jango even made sure to explain this over the comm channel for all the squads that were left.
The sound of something humming in the air had me pick up a rocket launcher in one hand and a massive blaster cannon that may as well be one step below a turbolaser in the other with the newcomers staring in shock and awe getting out of my way seeing the determined look on my face.
I ran out of the ship carrying the cannon with my ship's guns shooting at three Aethersprites that were coming in hot.
Hefting the cannon and making no real plan opened fire on the ships timing my shots to create crossfire kill zones with my ship's cannons firing away at them. One of the starfighters broke away from the other two with them shooting at my ship but the shields had enough juice with my droids getting them back up to take the laser fire.
The one breaking away flew in close to the ground evading my blaster fire and my ship's guns didn’t have an angle on them with how low they were so they couldn’t help.
A clicking sound followed by something sliding into place on the starfighter flying in like a bat out of hell had me narrow my eyes. The Rhodian pilot glared back at me before two missiles flew out of the ship. Taking aim as the world around me slowed down like it was molasses in winter, the cannon with two booms echoing out impacted both missiles just when they left the starfighter detonating them.
Through the fire and smoke the starfighter spun but I didn’t fail to notice one of the wings sparking with the ship slower to respond. The Jedi spun and weaved through my cannon fire, the other two moving to try and help.
Blaster fire from beside me fired with wild abandon into the sky making the starfighters all scream across the sky evading the shots. The winged bird I never let out of my sight before raising the rocket launcher.
“Come on, get a lock,” I said quietly to the weapon before a ding had me smiling. A press of the trigger had four missiles fly out chasing the damaged starfighter which was trying to evade the missiles. One it juked into a tree.
Another juked slamming into a small hill. The third was shot by one of their friends. The fourth got closer and closer but it started sputtering, losing steam. Blaster cannon aimed I pulled the trigger the shot hitting the missile detonating it with the starfighter swallowed in the explosion before it sailed into a distant tree crashing and blowing up echoing out across the expanse.
“Yes!”
“Nice shot!”
The people around me applauded me as the two starfighters flew away, getting some distance between us. Lowering my weapons I turned to the others.
“We need to hurry. If they are here then the rest of them won’t be far behind. Jango, if that city has some repulsorlifts we need them to get my ship closer to the city. If we can get it under the city's shield, it’ll give me more time to get her running again.”
“We’ll try. No promises Corvo. Until then I want whatever launchers you have like that handed out to a few members of whatever survivors are left.” He said to me turning to the others who walked in helping themselves to the gear in my ship, “You will be posted along that wall there when we take that city.”
Jango pointed to a particular tower along with the wall of the city. I walked back into my ship gently dropping the blaster cannon and opening my launcher and feeding four more tubes back into it from a crate. Tossing it to one of the mercs who stumbled back almost falling over from the surprising weight of the weapon.
“You make it look easy.” He said, looking between the weapon and me.
“Comes from experience. Here take these.” I handed him a backpack that had fifteen missiles in it. “The targeting scope only works if you keep the target in its line of sight. It takes at least three seconds to get a lock. It’ll keep them away for a bit.”
The man nodded looking at the weapon happily with a greedy gleam in his eye. It didn’t bother me if these guys took more equipment than they needed. It’s all easily replaceable and didn’t cost me anything but the small amount of time used to modify each blaster. If anything they would be a blessing in disguise since more hands to shoot and distract our enemies so they focused on them and not me.
The sounds of blaster cannons firing in the distance had all of us turn around. Quickly glancing out to see the walls of the city had a few blaster cannons on them with a fair few already taken care of with my Assaultrons on top sniper arms extended ready to shoot anyone foolish enough to try anything.
“You two take these.” I toss two ion rifles to two members who were taking some grenades. “Those are modified to shoot ion bolts. Your job is to take out the blaster cannons.”
They looked down at the weapons then at me, eyes narrowing looking defiant. Before I was about to wring both of their scrawny necks, Jango beat me to it. “Do as he says. We need this ship intact since it is our only means to leave the system and it happens to be an armory of weapons and equipment. Now move!”
The two along with the rest of them do as they are told, scurrying out in a hurry, eyes wide not wanting to anger Jango. “Thanks Jango. Now what are we doing?”
“Bane and I are going into the city to take stock of the situation and keep things under control. You will stay here with the ship, try to get it operational, and give any equipment to the groups who will be heading here. If they give you trouble you have my permission to handle them how you see fit.”
Before Jango left with Bane he messaged a few groups ordering them to stay near my ship to keep it protected. After that, I stayed busy organizing the mess, placing weapons of similar types and classifications next to one another while going over the ship's diagnostics and not liking what I was seeing.
Every time I heard my ship's guns open fire it made me want to get out and shoot at whatever ships were flying around. It didn’t help that I was worried about more Jedi showing up.
The groups came along with me helping get them equipped. Each of them looked like a kid in a candy store seeing the equipment and weapons that they were given.
They stuck around occasionally firing off a missile when a ship flew by. They were getting more brazen when they would get far too close for my liking but the groups had it handled. The buzzing of the ships was becoming more frequent which told me that the fleet was coming in.
We may have gotten out of the oven but now we were about to hit the frying pan. A beep from my commlink drew me away from the last couple of weapons I was organizing.
“Corvo, how are repairs on your ship?” Jango asked me. I could hear blaster fire in the background.
“They’re going. Probably be a day or two before she is capable of getting us off this rock with hyperspace available.”
“Not as good as I was hoping. The city is almost in our control. Only a few are left who are fighting us but they will be dealt with soon enough. Several speeders and repulsor lifts will be sent to tow your ship under the city’s shields.”
“Alright, I will be keeping an eye out for them. Any word from the Hutts about any backup?” I asked him hoping that we were not on our own. Losing several useful and elite assets like Bane, Jango, and myself was just foolish.
“No, they are jamming any comms out of the system. Normally we would be getting a fleet here to deal with this mess when they don’t hear from us. Unfortunately, the Jedi and Republic had the foresight to ensure every other fleet would be too busy to come and help us. For now, we are on our own.”
Jango's words sank in like a block of concrete dropped into water. No backup. I pinched the bridge of my nose letting out a sigh before a small sad smile formed on my face.
“Well, I guess that would make this more of a fair fight then,” I said, not looking forward to killing any Jedi. I had to harden my heart when I killed that one Jedi.
Every one of them that dies is just another body made into a step for Sidious to reach his goal. I am far from a good guy but I am not completely evil either. Just a man. A man who knows that if Sidious gets what he wants it won’t end well for anyone.
But a colder part of me had come to accept that some if not most would die. I couldn’t save them all. Especially if they were in my way stopping me from defeating Sidious. I couldn’t let that stop me. Especially if my plans for the future succeeded it was an inevitability.
“Hm. The Republic and Trade Federation are going to need it.” He ended the call after that.
Checking over the holopad showing the ship's diagnostics showing the damage done. My astromech droid was currently deep in the bowels of the ship with a few other droids doing their best to get this ship operational again.
It’s just going to take longer than I would have liked. By this point what I had counted to be at two to three hundred survivors had made it to the ship and were all outfitted. My weapons had taken a dent with the amount that was left in the armory but there was still enough left to outfit plenty more people.
Glancing over at the tarped figures I kept everyone away from them. “Guess you guys will be getting a live fire test run before long,” I said aloud to myself with no one to hear me.
Blaster fire and explosions in the distance told me that the ships were back again. Every now and again they would snoop around trying to get off any shots but the ship's guns and the ground crew made that difficult to accomplish.
A notification on the holopad had me touch the pop-up up seeing an image of the crew Jango had talked about. A few swipes and touches had the guns not have them highlighted as targets. Several people on the speeders and lifts had rockets aimed up firing away at any star fighters that looked like a hawk ready to dive bomb a rabbit for a juicy meal.
Even from the cargo hold I could hear the metal clamps and magnets at the end of the cords latching onto the ship.
“Bourke, get your crew in the cargo hold our ride to the city is here,” I said into my commlink.
“Alright, might be a little slow. The damn,” He paused when the hiss of a missile flying off with an explosion shortly after with blaster fire joining it, “Republic forces are getting more aggressive.”
“Say no more,” I said, getting up feeling that darker part of me that relished in the carnage and hunt that was to come.
Looking over my fair choice of blaster cannons I settle on the custom rotary cannon I had designed. Most sentients couldn’t hope to lift it let alone handle the recoil of the weapon beyond firing several dozen shots for less than a second before they would have to let go of the trigger.
Picking it up with one hand and walking out like it was a walk in the park. I was greeted by the sight of a few Republic starfighters that weren’t Jedi as far as I could tell. A few had crashed into the ground smoke rising high into the sky from the charred remains of the ships.
Hefting the weapon up the ground crew of two dozen froze at the noise warily looking back realizing it was me before a quick use of bullet time had them all pause with the starfighters flying slow enough that it would make this almost too easy.
Lifting the barrels to the sky and pressing down on the button making the eight barrels spin before spitting out red blasts like an angry volcano. Sweeping it across the sky the first star fighter took two blasts before it went up in flames falling slowly to the ground.
A second and a third tried to dive out of the way but it was too late. Two more roasted birds fall to the earth with their broken metal bodies.
The rest of their minds catching up with what was happening fan out in evasive maneuvers but their fates were sealed the instant I came out to handle them. Only two had survived and that was because they were out of my blaster cannon's range. Those two quickly fled for their lives.
The bullet time came to an end and my breathing was as normal as it was before I even picked this weapon up. Those looking at me looked back when the first starfighter crashed into the ground with the rest following it like a symphony of death and destruction across the once beautiful grasslands and rolling hills.
They stared at it for a long moment before turning around to see me walking back up the ramp. “If you don’t want to be left behind then get on the ship.”
They didn’t need to be told twice the two dozen people ran to get on the ship, their steps banging against the metal of the cargo bay doors. With the last rushing in the doors groaned as they rose back up, sealing the room off.
The speeders and repulsorlift craft got to work shifting and moving the cargo ship despite their vehicles struggling to move something they weren’t exactly designed to tow but they managed with the sheer number of them.
The ship tilted and shifted from left to right with the group slowly pulling it out of the dirt.
I pointed at a couple of different people amongst the gathered mercenaries who were reclining against tables or sitting on the floor gulping down water in their canteens.
“I need the best shot to go in there. You’ll find controls for a cannon that is manually operated. Any ships trying to harass our helpers outside you show them why that’s a bad idea.”
The individuals looked between one another before one of them nodded and got up moving towards the hidden doorway I opened up. Hopefully, he was a good enough shot because I didn’t need someone who couldn’t hit the ocean even if they aimed their gun right at it.
To be fair to the others I doubt they were completely useless. It was one thing to hit a ground target like enemy infantry. It was another to shoot at a fast-moving starfighter and aim ahead while keeping in mind the pilot would change direction on a moment's notice.
“The rest of you rest up but be ready to fight again. We are far from safe.”
Ignoring the acknowledgements and verbal agreements they had at my orders I got to work gathering up my own equipment loading various blaster pistols, my bow that had seen heavy modifications to it since my big job of kidnapping Dib.
Holstering the quiver of various specialized arrows onto my thigh before loading up several grenades along with a grenade launcher and good ol’ boomstick. The shotgun would prove useful if any monks with glow sticks decided they wanted to tango with me.
The ship lurched for a moment before stabilizing. All the gathered people fell over while I stood like a rock amidst a storm, uncaring and unbroken to all the elements around me. Looking at the holopad saw several of the vehicles strained under the ship's weight but despite struggling they endured and managed to haul the ship out of the dirt and slowly drag it across the ground.
A few other speeders and repulsorlifts joined the others and helped lift the other sides both taking it off the ground completely and increasing our speed. Just in time to when my holopad pinged far more ships than we have had thus far. Enough that my heart beat faster and a cold dread formed in my gut.
“Everyone get a blaster. Now!” I yelled when they all gave me confused looks as I stormed over to the cargo bay doors. The group realized something was up, hefting their weapons while I grabbed my cannon.
“We got a lot of starfighters coming at us. I’m opening the cargo bay doors to give you some room to breathe. Do not drop the ship unless you want to try your odds on a hostile planet under siege by the Republic and Federation with no means of escape.”
Ignoring the chorus of panicked responses with the doors opening I could hear a few of those around me gulp their hearts beating rapidly.
“Ready.” I calmly said.
The doors slowly opened. The people adjusted their blasters shifting from foot to foot.
“Aim.” The door had opened just enough for us to see the rapidly approaching Trade Federation droid starfighters. They looked like an angry swarm of hornets after someone just kicked their nest.
There were enough of them to block out the light of the system's sun setting over the horizon from just how many of them were flying around one another.
The ship's auto cannons were already laying into them alongside the manual cannon. They were dropping the droids like flies yet it didn’t matter.
There were so many of them that despite each cannon shot taking out a dozen per shot it barely made a dent in the swarm. Like scooping out water from a tub it just fills the space back in with what was left.
My rotary cannon opened fire with the numerous criminals around me opening fire alongside me creating a wall of blaster fire. They managed to take some down but their weapons could only do so much against droids designed to be starfighters.
“Grab some ion rifles! Some of you get those rocket launchers and the tube weapons over there!” I yelled loud enough for them to hear me over the blaster fire. The horde was closing in despite us throwing everything at it, dish sink included.
Yet it was only slightly inconvenienced and that was being generous. The starfighters fired at us and the speeders but some evasive maneuvers from our little helpers managed to save their lives.
I wasn’t just spraying shots into the horde but each shot was fired with surprising accuracy with each individual shot taking out a droid. This was without using bullet time. Just showed how much of a difference that Echani training had made.
“Got 'em!” One of the grunts said happily aiming his launcher.
“Good. I need eight of you to work on swapping out the rockets and grenades for those shooting,” I looked off to the side to the others, “We need a rotation if we want to keep those things away.”
The eight whom I glanced at stumbled over one another but I didn’t think less of them. It was an intimidating sight seeing what had to be well over a thousand droids swarming the horizon. Not all of them were shooting at my ship.
Large groups would break off aimed at the ground we float past shooting at what I now realized were crashed ships from our fleet killing any survivors on the ground. One particularly unfortunate group had a barrage of missiles fly down at them like tiny mosquitoes leaving thin black lines before detonating, swallowing the ships and those around them up.
Those on the ground didn’t even have a chance as the last thing they would have seared into their eyes was the missiles followed by hellfire to embrace them into the afterlife.
Everyone beside me unloaded into the oncoming horde with the missiles clearing out large swaths of the droids whether from the explosions or the various scrapped droids crashing into their remaining brethren. The fiery hiss of the missiles propelling towards the horde or the thump of the grenade launchers became a familiar tune.
It was almost like something that could be in a heavy metal song. Grenades lobbed out detonated or with a ping a blue field of electricity formed making the droids fall to the ground like lifeless dolls.
Every time one of my passengers ran out of ammo they shoved the weapon into the hands of those behind them taking the offered weapons as fast as they could, sweat pouring off of them but each of them was so focused they didn't even notice. Staring at what could be death coming right at you tended to do that to those who had enough sense not to want to die.
With the weapons cycling and those behind them reloading the tide of droids was getting whittled down but what must have been a couple hundred destroyed there were still too many. I never once stopped shooting with me taking as many as I could down.
A few of the grunts realized it wasn’t enough unceremoniously dropping their blasters opting to instead work together and lift one of the blaster cannons with one dragging a crate over with the others helping lift the massive blaster onto it.
The barrel aimed out of the ship at an angle. “Fire!” One of them yells to the one holding the massive weapon. They cut loose almost making the heavy weapon fall onto them from the recoil with the shot taking out a droid in one hit along with two of its companions from the wreckage.
Several of them move to hold the weapon in place after that nearly disastrous first shot. A hand signal was all the shooter needed before unloading the weapon as each pull of the trigger the weapon bounced a little off the crate but the others managed to hold it down.
Several other groups took notice of their idea, deciding to copy it. With four more cannons joining the first one the tide of droids was pushed back to a stalemate with the rotation of weapons and the ad hoc turrets.
The droids hadn’t stopped shooting at my ship, having abandoned any evasive maneuvers in favor of an all-out attack no matter the cost to destroy us and my ship. The shields were holding but I knew it was only a matter of time before they went down.
Two of the speeders I could see at the corners of the opening of the ship flew around trying to evade the shots as best they could but both got overwhelmed. One speeder clipped from behind trailed smoke before the driver tried to keep her flying but it was in vain. The speeder lost all power nosediving into the ground with a look of terror on the passengers’ and the driver's faces.
It wasn’t long after they were out of sight that the crunch of durasteel and a few missiles fired down told me all that I needed to know. The second speeder had gained enough elevation trying to hold my ship up that it was no longer under the shield.
A stray bolt slammed into the driver's head turning it into bloody chunks. The body slumped forward causing the speeder to move further ahead, its cable still attached to the ship. The ship turned slightly to the right with our end dipping down; the other vehicles struggled to compensate for the loss and added weight.
Making a snap decision my cannon was aimed at part of the cable still attached before it was severed with the speeder crashing down below.
“You need to hurry, those droids will catch up to us at any moment.”
Ignoring whatever panicked response the crews said we fought like hell to keep the coming tide at bay. My worry grew by the second every time they hit my shields. So far it has only been laser fire.
Any missiles they tried to shoot were swiftly shot, detonating and taking out groups of the droids by yours truly. They quickly learned not to use the missiles instead opting to wear down the shield with copious amounts of bolts.
The herd of droids had started to thin out if only a little with the sky behind them now partially visible like seeing past an angry swarm of bees. Just when I thought they were going to overwhelm us, a reflective sheen in the air. The kind you would see on a bubble as it moved past us like water breaking against a rock on a beach, the swarm of droids breaking off moving around the city’s shield.
I let out a sigh of relief for the moment of reprieve we were given.
