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RotSW: WFSAM - Prologue

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STAR WARS

Rage of the Shadow Warriors When Few Stood Against Many

by David 'Corran Fett' H.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

With the Mandalorians:
Ronan Barec; Mandalorian soldier (male human)
Goran Beviin; Mandalorian soldier (male human)*
Altair Jiriad; Mandalorian soldier (male Kiffar)
Skira Jiriad; Mandalorian soldier, Altair's son (male human)
Sareth Karr; Mandalorian soldier, Ara's husband, (male human)
Ara Norvath; Mandalorian soldier (female human)
Ayden Stone; Mandalorian soldier (male human)
Gladus Tite; Mandalorian soldier, former outlaw, criminal and assassin (male human)
Ram Zerimar; Mandalorian soldier (male human)*

With the Yuuzhan Vong:
Nas Choka; warmaster (male Yuuzhan Vong)*
Tzekon Lian; subaltern (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Rulaak Tsun; commander (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Others:
Macos Fenix; bounty hunter (male human)
Salem Rios; Lieutenant, Galactic Alliance Intelligence (male Feeorin)

(* save for Goran Beviin, Ram Zerimar, and Nas Choka, three official EU characters, all characters are Original Characters created by me, the author)


PROLOGUE
This can't be happening.

The Twi'lek found himself in the most uncomfortable situation he had ever been in, and the muzzle of a heavy blaster pistol aimed at his forehead didn't quite aid to feeling any better.

"If there's one thing that disgusts me more than the vongese themselves," said the fierce woman holding the blaster, "then it's scum like you."

His lekku were trembling heavily and his face was soppy with sweat, but he still managed to hold his own in the conversation—he used to be a skilled ambassador, after all.

"That's ironic, you know," he countered, "coming from a member of a group of gun-for-hires who haven't too long ago been doing the dirty work for your loathed vongese, as you call them."

Even before finishing talking, the Twi'lek realized that it hadn't been such a good idea to insult the furious woman, and she made him pay for that.

"Nar'sheb, hut'uun. Don't push your luck, scumbag."

The Twi'lek could've never imagined that the last sound to hear in his life would be a rather tranquil, even harmonic one—but he did realize that the cold metallic dart piercing his carotid was not in the least harmonic as he faded into netherworld.

Half an hour before...
</i>Ara Norvath immediately realized something was terribly wrong as the spaceliner jerkily dropped out of hyperspace. This sense only increased as the calm voice of one of the ship's stewardesses appeared on the comm-speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently experiencing technical problems with the hyperspace engines but this matter should be solved within an hour. Please remain calm and stay on your seats." The stewardess well managed to conceal the nervousness in her voice, but not well enough for Ara not to notice. "We apologize for the delay and we are offering free fresh drinks for everyone. Please be patient, and if you have any questions feel free to ask our staff."

Free drinks to keep the passengers unsuspicious? Ara thought, eyeing the other passengers who were hysterically in whispered conversation. Now that's new.

The Mandalorian woman wore a loose tunic and wide trousers well concealing the armor and gear she wore beneath them. Her helmet and weapons were in a bag in the cargo bay, but she wasn't unarmed—she still had a small combat knife and her gauntlets, and she was certain that both would be needed, soon.

Taking a spaceliner these days wasn't exactly the safest way to travel, even despite the fact that Sundance, an old Leonore C-3 passenger liner, had been modified with automatic quad-laser-turrets and turbolaser batteries.

Once more, Ara regretted having taken a civil craft from Denon to Contruum, instead of taking a ride with the starfighter of a befriended bounty hunter—no, Ara hadn't wanted to cause her friend any more troubles, after all he'd done for her. But that was another issue, and she had to deal with her decision.

She needed to find out what had hauled the ship out of hyperspace—hoping it weren't the Yuuzhan Vong—so she unstrapped herself, stood up and went to the corridor. She didn't get far before a Duros steward noticed her.

"Excuse me, madam," he said nervously, "but could you remain on your seat, please?"

"I can't," said Ara. "I'm not feeling well—I need to use the 'freshers."

"I—Of course, madam."

The Duros was even more irritable now, as if he knew she was lying. But, for her sake, he didn't ask any more questions, so she advanced through the corridor, and, well aware of the cautious eyes of the alien steward on her, she entered the ladies' refreshers.

In the cabin, she considered what to do next. If it was the Yuuzhan Vong who had pulled them out of hyperspace, then it could either be a lone dovin-basal mine—these days, thousands of them were still on often-used hyperspace routes—without any other Yuuzhan Vong craft in proximity, or it was a mine together with a small force of Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers and transporters, only waiting to pitch into new stranded starships. If former, Sundance's crew had only to repair the hyperspace engine and hope they managed to escape before any Vong arrived. If latter, the spaceliner probably would've already started firing on the Vong, and the fact they hadn't made the first possibility the more plausible.

Ara knew there was a third option, though—one that she bristled to imagine it was the most probable. Rumors said that the Vong—and the usual pirates, but they had been doing this all the time, also before the invasion—weren't the only ones ambushing cargo-, refugee- and passenger transports; there were also the idiots who still believed the Vong would spare them when they allied with them: the Peace Brigade. And Ara had this uncomfortable feeling that it was this very scattered group of immoral traitors to the whole galaxy that was about to raid Sundance now—the over 1300 beings on the ship had to appear to be a good present to the Vong, after all.

Trying to clear her mind, Ara held her head under the refresher and let algid water pour down her face. She had, after all, not completely been lying to the Duros—she really wasn't in best health, although she had no idea why.

Then she halted, the water still flowing out of the faucet, as she heard and felt the dumb sound and rumble of another ship docking to the only airlock hatch of the spaceliner.

Here we go, Ara thought. Wonder what took 'em so long...

Grabbing her vibroblade, she leaned against the bulkhead and unlocked the door, but didn't open it. Going through a mental list of measures to take in such a situation, she decided it was best to wait—running out of the cabin and engage the enemy head over heels would only compromise her current advantage of a safe position; not to say she'd be dead before she could even touch one of them.

Whoever they are, that is...

It didn't take too long before the voice of the stewardess reappeared on the comm, no longer calm but hysterical and nervous now. She announced that the ship was being boarded, there were not enough combat-trained crewmembers to handle this and using to the escape pods was useless—thus implying every soul on this ship was doomed.

That was when the panic started, although not a single one of the raiders had yet showed up, and Ara could hear desperate shouts, cries and various alien expressions, along with the slight tremors of people stampeding senselessly through the corridors, not caring about anyone but themselves. Though, Ara was certain not everyone was going mad—there had to be some who did the exact difference: nothing. They probably just sat on their seats, stunned and experiencing a total blackout.

Ara didn't dare open the door just yet, to see what was going on on board and try to calm things down, but there was a lot of anger coming up on her, either way—for both the attackers and the crew of Sundance. Condemning the lives of over 1300 people just like that was an inhuman act. Unfortunately, the "need" to perform acts like this had inconveniently increased since the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

A sudden knock at the door, followed by someone cursing, brought her back from her thoughts to here-and-now.

"Open the door, whoever's in there!" a voice from outside called harshly—it didn't sound like one of the passengers.

It's already open, di'kut, she thought, pushed the button to open the door, reached out as it opened and put the human into a tight stranglehold, her vibroblade millimeters from his throat, and closed the door again.

"Woah," the apparently unarmed man said, with honest shock and surprise on his dark-complected face. "Easy... you might—"

"Don't push it, hut'uun," Ara said grimly. "Tell me any reason not to ruin your fancy suit with some ugly red blotches."

The man sounded more than uneasy now, after realizing the fierce woman was serious, after all. "Well, for starters, there's, um, nothing I can think of, apart from the fact that my short career as a bounty hunter's come to an end, at last. Still, before I cease to be, I'd like to hear what scumbag didn't have the guts to take on me personally and sent another hunter instead."

That answer caught Ara more than off-guard, as well as the other's slightly sarcastic tone. "Bounty hunter? What in the Emperor's Black Heart are you talking about? You're not from the Peace Brigade?"

It was to the man to be surprised now. "What?! You think I'm one of those Vong-glorifying bastards?! What is this, some kind of joke show? You could start releasing me already..."

Take that as a no. He might be saying the truth—after all, what should an unarmed Peace Brigader in finest business-suit do here, anyway? And if he was, he wouldn't try to deceive me 'cause his lads are right around the corner. But trust's good, control's better, so I better keep one or two eyes on him—just in case.

"False move, you're dead," she said, loosening the grip. "Understood?"

"I guess so," the man said, relieved. "Macos Fenix, by the way, would-be-notorious bounty hunter."

Before Ara could answer anything—not that she had intended to—the sound of a blaster clanged outside the cabin, followed by even more screams.

"Everyone who hasn't got his mouth shut by now," a guttural nonhuman voice shouted—maybe Devaronian or Twi'lek, Ara thought, "will have it shot by me."

That was, of course, and idle threat—the Brigade would need every single prisoner alive, so their blasters were probably set on stun.

However, it worked, and silence filled the scene, only to be broken again by the Brigader's voice.

"We bring you a gift. A gift that none of you can defy. You are among the few chosen ones to take the journey of the true path..."

"Yeah, yeah," Fenix said impatiently. "I'll show you 'true path', son of a murglak." He looked at Ara, who was tinkering with her vibroblade. "It doesn't happen you've got another one of those neat knives, does it?"

"You can have mine. I don't need it," she added as she noticed Fenix's confused gaze. "Wait for my mark—we don't know their numbers, so we need to take 'em quietly, and unseen."

"You know, I usually don't take orders, but you look like you know what you're saying, so I'll make an exception."

"I'm flattered," said Ara, rolling her eyes. "Now shut it."

She could well need her helmet and especially its thermal vision now, because miscalculating the figure of hostiles now might end her day sooner than she'd like it to. Nevertheless, she made an assumption of about two to three dozen Peace Brigaders on Sundance, take or leave a handful, and probably another handful still on their ship. These figures would make sense to Ara, did she ever plan to kidnap 1300 people on a ship like that, but Ara was a professional—and what she heard about the Peace Brigade stated they were not exactly professionals. But she decided to stick with her assumption, just in case.

No matter how many hostiles where on the ship, it was totally vital to be cautious and stealthy, to catch them off guard and prevent this from becoming a devastating gunfight with the odds against Ara and her new companion Fenix.

Finally deciding to do something, she pressed her ear against the door and listened closely. Apart from the still boasting Brigader, she could hear footsteps approaching. Turning her head to face the alerted bounty hunter, she gave him a sign to stand down and wait. As the footsteps passed by, she pressed the button to open the door.

It slid open with a hiss, quiet enough not to be noticed by the one who had just strode by, and Ara stepped out cautiously. The refreshers were in a side corridor that crossed the main corridor, so she was out of sight from the deck where the hostile leader was holding his speech.

She was surprised to see that the lights where dimmed and it was rather dark, what let her to the assumption that maybe some of the crew members hadn't been as inactive as she had thought and had switched to emergency power in order to have a small advantage when defending the ship against the intruders.

Crouching, she sneaked off to the bulkhead where the corridors crossed, leaned against it and took a brief look into the main passenger's deck.

The Brigader—a Twi'lek—had stopped talking and was giving orders to some of his men and then headed off to the bridge. Ara could make out seven armed Peace Brigaders in the shadowy illumination, most of them non-humans: Rodians, Devaronians, and she thought she could even make out a Weequay, but she figured there were more of them she couldn't see—seven men against over 400 passengers was a risk even the Peace Brigade wouldn't take; or so Ara thought.

She decided to get back to Fenix and tell him about the plan she had in mind. As she looked at the cabin, she could see the overly swanky dressed bounty hunter cowering there, his dark brown eyes expectantly fixed on her. See could spot the urge to do something and the rage against the immoral Peace Brigade in his eyes, but also something else—something she couldn't quite place, something even more intense and emotional than what she could already see. There was something about that man that unsettled her, but she didn't know why. Ara just hoped she wouldn't need to find out the hard way.

She just wanted to go back to Fenix as a voice and approaching footsteps interrupted her. The voice had that distinctive, disgusting chirping sound of a Rodian, one that was mumbling in a jittery Huttese into a comlink From the tense in his voice, Ara could tell that the conversation with the person on the other end of the line wasn't about to end very soon, especially not soon enough for her to take out the Rodian without getting the attention of the person on the com. Another problem was the fact that the side corridor with the refreshers was more illuminated than the main corridor and there was nothing to hide except from the cabin, and that was ouch of reach.

Just in time, she gave Fenix a mark to close the door and then, without further thinking and driven by her reflexes and intuition, she went the only way possible.

Up.

As the Rodian entered the corridor, he instantly froze. He shouted a few, nearly inaudibly fast spoken words into the comlink—it sounded something like "I got 'em." to Ara, but it could've just as well been a "Shut your sithspawned mouth, you disgusting koochoo." From the following action, as the Rodian smashed his comlink to the floor, she figured it was latter.

Now that the Rodian wasn't any longer communicating with one of his comrades, Ara decided to do something about him.

So she dropped to the floor behind the Peace Brigader as soundlessly as possible. The alien apparently didn't notice her and was slowly approaching the door to the refreshers, his blaster rifle at the ready.

Ara had been dealing with lots of Rodians before, so she knew exactly their weak points, the major one being their necks. She grabbed his head and neck and jerked his green, sweaty face back, just about faintly enough not to kill him already, but so that another quick pull would do the trick.

"One sound," she threatened the nervous Rodian, "and you're dead mea—"

"Bring it on, bitch," suddenly a deep female voice said from behind her, the same time as she felt the cold metal of a blaster's muzzle pressed against her head.

Not good, the Mandalorian woman thought simply.

Slowly, Ara turned her head to face a female Bothan with near-purple pelt sprinkled with beige spots, whose toxic-green eyes made her appear more than surreal.

"And you would be...?" Ara asked.

"None of your business," said the Bothan harshly. "Now, would you kill that murglak already, or do you want me to shoot both of you?"

Me'ven?! The Mandalorian woman couldn't conceal her surprise—she was scowling in utter bewilderment. What?! This is getting seriously ugly...

That little shock could've nearly cost her life, but before the Bothan was about to open her mouth after a short time's silence, adrenaline flooded back into Ara's veins and she reacted. With a brief but forceful draft she twitched the Rodian's head back, and with a loud cracking sound his neck broke. She loosened her grip and the lifeless body plunged to the ground.

"So," she said after taking a few steps away from the Bothan woman, the blaster still aimed at her, "would you tell me why I just killed a useful informant?"

Ara hadn't brought up this issue before on purpose. Had she started an argument under the pressure of the death-threat about whether or not the Rodian was more useful alive, the Bothan might've lost her patience and just killed them both. However, the Bothan might still shoot her now.

"That slimy creature would've rather killed himself than speaking a single word of truth. And speaking of slimy creatures..." The Bothan woman hesitated, disgust spreading on her furry face. "I'm looking for someone."

"And this... someone might be...?"

"Macos Fenix." She pronounced the name as though she had eaten something nauseous. "I doubt you've heard of him."

Surprised once more, Ara couldn't conceal her reaction, and thus decided to go another way with this.

"You're right, I never heard of him." She hesitated, closely observing the Bothan's reaction. "But I met him."

"You met him?! Where?"

"Here on board. I'll lead you to him, under one condition: you're aiding me to cleanse the ship from the scum."

"Are you insane? There's more than forty of those murglaks on the ship, and even a Corellian wouldn't take the odds against that. I'm not playing along your little psycho game."

"I'm sane enough to know that Fenix won't be of much use for you when you two end up as mindless slaves once the crab-boys arrive. Anyway, where'd you get that figure from, forty?"

"I counted. I've been lurking around the airlock as forty-two entered, but there are probably still several of them on their vessel. But I'm not ready to die miserably in a battle where I'm more than outgunned."

"You don't exactly have a choice. Yuuzhan Vong slavery isn't death—it's worse."

"Who says I'm gonna let myself get captured by those dungheads? No, not if I can do something about that. I'll grab Fenix, steal their ship and..."

"And what? Leave thirteen-hundred passengers to their unholy fate?" Anger was rising in Ara again. This Bothan's no better than that pack of Vong-allying hut'uune. "Not with me."

"What you wanna do, girlie?" the Bothan inquired scornfully, lifting her blaster. "Spit at me?"

That first contemptuous 'girlie' made her nearly lose her temper, but then she noticed something in the background and could just about draw in her horns.

"Better," she said as calmly as possible. "I don't do anything at all."

The Bothan woman didn't even have time to shoot her a confused gaze. She collapsed to the floor, a vibroblade stuck deep in the hollow of her knee.

From the open cabin door, Ara could see Fenix stepping out and approaching. She knelt down to pick up the Bothan's and the Rodian's blasters and then felt the Bothan's pulse. It was still beating.

"You're good at throwing knives," she said, looking up to Fenix, who bore a troubled look on his usually rather cheery face.

"Is she dead?" he asked, trying to sound sober.

"Nope, unconscious."

"Damn. I aimed at her neck."

So much about the fancy knife throwing, she thought, but something in his features and tone told Ara that his otherwise sarcastically meant comment wasn't sarcastic at all.

"Who is she?" Ara asked cautiously.

There was a long moment's silence as Fenix was staring into space, pondering about something that had to deeply touch him, before he finally spoke those few words, slowly, as if still half in his dream world.

"She used to be my wife."

Ara didn't say anything. Whatever she had said, it would've been misplaced, and she doubted Fenix would've actually received anything had she spoken up, anyway.

"It's a long, boring and intricate story," he said, nevertheless, slowly coming back to here-and-now. "Let's just lock her up and get to the task at hand."

And with that the bounty hunter grasped the Bothan woman and carried her into the empty cabin. Ara did the same with the dead Rodian, and then they relieved the two of their gear and locked up the cell, all without a single word.

They divided the weapons, Fenix wielding the Rodian's blaster rifle and wearing the torso of the nonhuman's light armor, and Ara, with her Mandalorian armor still covered under her clothes, took the light blaster pistol and the knife—she had wanted latter back because she could handle the blade better than Fenix.

Fully geared up, each ready to fight for their own agendas, the unlike team went to the door where the corridors passed and cautiously stepped out onto the main deck.

After taking a few steps into the shadows, Ara felt that they had done a terrible mistake. As she turned, her feelings proved themselves right. She was staring into the muzzles of six blaster rifles surrounding them.

"Put your weapons down at once," a Weequay shouted, "and leave your hands where I can see them."

Ara threw a certain glance at Fenix, who only nodded slightly. She hadn't come this far to end up like that, no. The odds were against her, but with a little portion of luck, and the advantage of surprise, she should be able to manage this early threat.

She looked around, noting the position of every single of the seven men, and then decided to do something about it.

After a quick nod to Fenix, she ducked and fired a clean shot in the Weequay's face, out of the low-energy blaster she had overcharged. Ara tossed the ineffective weapon away and shot a poisoned dart from her gauntlet into another Brigader's throat, and it was only then that the others reacted. One of them, a Rodian, was stupid enough to fire a stun blast at Ara and missed her, instead hitting a Devaronian behind her, who went down cursing heavily in his native tongue.

Back-to-back with Fenix, she didn't have time to check how many the bounty hunter had taken out, and continued fighting, now down to melee combat weapons, intending to spare her additional armor gear for later, when she needed it more. She grabbed her vibroblade, dodged another shot from the foolish Rodian and slung it into another Rodian's chest, the one who had been scarcely missed by his comrade's shot and now dropped lifelessly to the floor. Ara performed a roll to the dead Rodian's body and retracted her blade, only to face the Rodian with the blaster as she stood up again.

Both opponents froze, plainly staring at each other, before a quiet 'klick' broke the silence and Ara noticed that the Rodian's thumb had just tilted the switch from "stun" to "kill", his black, facetted eyes still fixed on hers, his face deadpan like a Mandalorian's helmet. Ara had never often watched holo-dramas, but the scene she faced now reminded her of these old cheesy gunslinger movies where the action culminated in a duel of the hero versus his arch-villain—something that was, of course, more than ridiculous, especially because the Rodian made a really poor villain, and Ara would've been close to laughing, hadn't it been for the matter of life and death. But still, it was exactly like that, and each of them waited for the other to make a move.

After another minute—it seemed more like hours to Ara—she eventually made that move and feinted a gesture to shoot another dart from her gauntlets. Instead, she performed a cartwheel to the left, a fraction of a millisecond too late, as it turned out, because the Rodian's reaction was faster than expected and the blaster bolt grazed her left calf. She lost balance and crashed inflexibly to the ground.

With her face down and the tremendous pain spreading from her leg making it hard for her to move, she didn't notice what was going on around her. After a few seconds she noticed that something was wrong, the Rodian should've shot her by now.

As she finally managed to steady herself and get up, she could make out both Fenix and the Rodian with their hands up and their backs to her, and a handful of uniformed humans behind them, with E-11s at their ready. One of them was talking to them, but from the distance, Ara couldn't hear what they were saying.

Meanwhile, the pain had dropped to an acceptable level and Ara cautiously got back on her feet and limped towards the others. As she approached, she could see all the passengers who, now more or less safe, at least for a while, had gathered around and watched the scene.

"...not one of them, how often have I got to repeat this?!" That was Fenix muttering at the man with the rank stripes, upset about being captured with a Peace Brigader and suspected to be one of them. "I don't know how many of those kriffin' dungheads are on this ship!"

Ara now recognized that the men where all staff members, probably the only ones able to handle a gun, and the man Fenix was talking to was most likely the captain. And the captain was just about to open his mouth to accuse Fenix of even more things as the Mandalorian woman interrupted.

"He speaks the truth, sir." All of the sudden, all the attention—as well as all of the blaster rifles—was on her, and their leader sported a confused gaze. "Why should he and I be Peace Brigaders when we are fighting against them? The only member of the Peace Brigade here is that slimy Rodian."

"And why," the captain inquired skeptically, "should I know you aren't lying?"

"Easy," Fenix said. "He's not on the list of passengers. You can check us, I'm Macos Fenix, and she's..."

"Sarad Dyre," Ara interjected. It wasn't exactly a lie, because she was traveling incognito—she did have enemies, after all, ones of the sorts that would've immobilized a small armada and blasted a spaceliner with thirteen-hundred people aboard to shards, just to ensure they got her. "But we're wasting our time with this nonsense. There are forty-two of them on the ship, minus the six we've taken out here and another one I got the information from. That leaves thirty-five, not counting the ones that should be still on their docked ship."

The captain scowled at her, but said nothing. He nodded to one of his men, who took a datapad from his belt and checked the list, nodding affirmatively to his superior.

"Alright, listen, everybody," the captain spoke up after gathering words so that the other passengers could hear him as well. "Anybody who knows how to fight or to handle a gun will be of great help and will be significantly repaired when we're through this. This is OUR ship, and we'll make sure it stays that! Now, somebody lock up that scumbag,"—he was glancing at the Rodian now, disgust on his face—"and all volunteers grab any kind of weapon you can get!"

Ara wasn't surprised to see only a handful step forward to fight alongside them—in these desperate times, everybody hold on their lives, always fearing for the worst and mostly caring only for themselves or their families. But still, it was a pity there were only so few—it would be easier had there been more, and then, perhaps, this whole situation could be solved without spilling further blood, both of the Peace Brigade and hostages they'd sooner or later be taking.

"Captain," Ara said impatiently, "we've got to get moving—now! We best head towards the bridge, that's were their leader was headed."

Without waiting for the others, she walked ahead, well aware of Fenix on her tails.

At least someone...

Fortunately—or unfortunately—they didn't come too far before the captain cried out "Wait!" and he, his men and the volunteers quickly caught up with the Mandalorian woman and her bounty hunter companion.

En route to the bridge, they went through another passenger deck—this time with less than a hundred people. They hit on a mere six Peace Brigaders, who weren't really up for a fight after two of them had been stunned, and gave up—but not before one of them managed to send a call for reinforcements. On this deck, nearly another dozen of volunteers joined the group, although they were rather short of ranged weapons, now.

After interrogating one of the capitulators, Ara found out that on the last part to the bridge, there were only five other Brigaders, including their leader. So they decided to split up and only Ara and Fenix went on towards the bridge, while the captain and the others entrenched themselves and prepared a trap for the incoming reinforcements.

"So this is it, eh?" Fenix asked while they were cautiously walking through the corridors, avoiding spots that provided an ambush. "I never thought it'd get that easy."

"It ain't over, yet," Ara muttered back, her tone implying that she wasn't quite keen on chatting right now. For her sake, Fenix caught that and went on without further attempts of conversation.

After continuing for a few more steps, something came to her mind, that she should've thought of far earlier.

So the Brigaders we've blown sent a reinforcement call. But wait, this means that...

That was when guns started to pop out a few dozen meters away and began blazing all-around.

Instinctively, she sought cover, and the only she could find was a door right to her two meters ahead. She sprinted forward, opened the door and got inside, grabbing for one of the blasters she had picked up. All that went with a good portion of luck, what couldn't quite be said about her new companion, Fenix. Before he could reach the door across from hers, one of the stray shots from their attackers hit the bounty hunter in his left lower leg, and in the motion, he couldn't catch himself before collapsing to the floor. They still couldn't be seen, apart from their blasters blazing blindly all over the place.

"I'd rather get moving," Ara shouted out, eyeing Fenix's attempts to get up again, however desperate and futile they were, "in case you don't wanna end up like Byss Cheese once we're out of this."

"Ha-ha, very funny," Fenix muttered back. "You know, I could use a hand..."

"Sure," Ara said, firing a few blind shots towards the Peace Brigaders, not assuming or attempting to hit anyone. Nevertheless, she heard someone screaming, and the number of shots directed at them suddenly decreased. Ara couldn't help but smirk, and then she quickly went out of the cabin, reached for Fenix, grabbed his hand and pulled him in. "Sorry 'bout the mocking, I don't usually tend to be kidding in situations like that..."

"It's fine," Fenix replied, grinning. "Unless I do end up like Byss Cheese in the end."

At least I got what I wanted. Cheer him up and make him forget about the pain...

"So, how's your leg?" she asked, serious again.

"It's had better times, and I doubt I can walk too far. I really envy you, you know..."

"Envy me?!" Ara said doubtfully. "How's that?"

"Well, it's all yours now. You're the one who gets all the fun of kicking the ass of them scumbags."

"You sure nothing else got hit? Like... your head?"

Fenix hesitated, obviously trying to think of a good reply to that, but before he could, Ara had already slipped into the cabin across from him So all he said was a sarcastic "Ha-ha..." before he began to examine his wound more closely.

Ara was rather confused, now that the shooting had stopped completely. She could hear voices from ahead, though, and she was wondering whether they had run out of ammo. The answer didn't have her wait too long, as suddenly one of the Peace Brigaders left his cover and stepped into the gangway.

Immediately, Ara's reflexes kicked in, she lifted the blaster, inhaled and held her breath, aimed at a chest and, almost gently, pulled the trigger. Only then did she realize that she had done something terribly awful, but it was too late. In shock, Ara gazed at the young female Devaronian, not even thirteen years old, who stared back at her, her wide-opened, tear-overflowed eyes in utter agony, her innocent lips choking out a few last words.

"You... killed... my father—"

Then she lowered her head, facing the big black hole in her chest, and collapsed to the ground.

"No!" Ara screamed out, bursting into tears. "I didn't mean to..."

She walked over to the dead girl, dropped on her knees, trembling severely, and gently held onto the child's small hand, sobbing about what she had done. Take my life, instead. This just isn't the way things were supposed to be. Those hut'uune don't even balk at using their kids against us. If there was anything she could do to undo this, she would have. But there wasn't.

Then, suddenly, there were shots coming from behind her, and someone was yelling at her—probably Fenix—but Ara didn't care, and didn't react. She still couldn't believe the gruesome act she had committed, and nothing, not even the danger of being killed now, could drag her thoughts away from that.

Only subconsciously, she noticed all the noise and the heat around her, and it was also her subconsciousness that told her to slip out of her reverie. Very, very slowly, her mind did, and more and more she became aware that the shooting had halted, the stench of ozone and burnt flesh still in the air. And then, Ara also began to feel the pain that was spreading from her left upper arm, but as she looked at it, she gladly noticed that it was only a graze.

She got back on her feet, picked up her pistol and observed the scene. In front of her, there were four Peace Brigader corpses, including the girl, lying on the ground, two of them with still smoke rising from their fresh wounds. Behind her, Fenix was lying on the floor, half in the cabin, half in the gangway, and he seemed more than freaked out, although apparently unhurt, what Ara was glad about.

"Kriff!" Fenix cursed as he looked at her. "What in the nine hells of Corellia was that all about?!"

Ara just gazed at him, deadpan, but didn't offer a reply. "Four of five chakaar'e dead, that only leaves their leader."

"Whoa, wait, wait, wait! Don't you think...?" Fenix said. He hadn't noticed that the agitated Mandalorian woman hadn't exactly been talking to him, because she was already gone for good.

Rushing through the gangway, Ara didn't even care about any other doors and traps, because she knew there was only one place where the last Peace Brigader could be, and that was the bridge. It was probably some sort of intuition that lead her there, because she couldn't think of a rational reason.

The door to the cockpit wasn't even sealed, so she just stepped right in and immediately recognized the Twi'lek standing with his back to her over various consoles. He swirled around, a blaster pistol in his hand and fired a shot at her chest. The bolt hit the armor made of a fair amount of Mandalorian iron beneath her tunic, and the ever-so-forceful thrust only made her press on more franticly. The Peace Brigader's skills obviously lay elsewhere than in ranged combat, because anybody else would've kept on firing, but he just froze, and made it easy for Ara to punch away his weapon and thrust him to the ground.

"No, no, no!" the cowering Twi'lek begged under the pressure of a blaster pistol only inches away from his head. "Don't kill me!"

Ara hesitated and fixed the disgusting creature with what she imagined to be the most ferocious scowl she ever had put on.

"If there's one thing that disgusts me more than the vongese themselves," she said, "then it's scum like you."

"That's ironic, you know," replied the soppy-faced alien venturously, "coming from a member of a group of gun-for-hires who haven't too long ago been doing the dirty work for your loathed vongese, as you call them."

Of all things he could've said, the Peace Brigader had picked the very most thing that he should not have, and Ara didn't hesitate before she let him pay for that completely foolish and infelicitous boldness.

"Nar'sheb, hut'uun. Don't push your luck, scumbag."

And with that she lifted her left arm and released a silent saber-dart from her gauntlet, delivering the Twi'lek his ticket to netherworld.
This is the Prologue for Rage of the Shadow Warriors: When Few Stood Against Many. The subsequent chapters will be posted later.

You can find the up-to-date version of the story on my website as a PDF on http://www.daves-sw-rogues.de/fanfics/r_when_few_stood_against_many.htm and in its thread on TheForce.Net-Boards http://boards.theforce.net/b/b10477/25253415/. Remember, it's still WIP.

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Rage of the Shadow Warriors: When Few Stood Against Many is a short story set in the Yuuzhan Vong war in the NJO-era. Here's a short summary: The Yuuzhan Vong are near defeat, and the Galactic Alliance is close to liberating Coruscant. But there are still thousands of worlds controlled by the Yuuzhan Vong and their minions, and a group of former Mandalorian mercenaries, bounty hunters and even criminals takes it upon themselves to do something about that. A task that proves not to be without perfidies... this story tells the adventures of this party, and the galaxy would remember that few stood against many.

Rage of the Shadow Warriors is a series of Mandalorian fanfiction set in the NJO. As of now, it consists of one major short story, Honor Guard, which was the first of the series I wrote. In between, I wrote two short vignettes, Pariah and Runner, both of which are simply tie-ins to introduce new characters, and for neither of them, you need to have read Honor Guard. I am also in the progress of writing a real sequel to Honor Guard, which is called When Few Stood Against Many (this one). In WFSAM, all characters from the former three fics come together, so it is necessary to have read all others. I'm currently five chapters in WFSAM, and you can find updates in its TFN thread.



I would really appreciate some constructive feedback from anyone who reads this story. You can either post your comments, thoughts, critique and/or likes/hates on this DevArt page, in the linked TFN-Thread or email them directly to tracyn@gmx.net

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Disclaimer: Star Wars, its characters, and its setttings are copyrighted by © Lucasfilm Ltd. and George Lucas.
My fanfiction stories, my original characters and my artworks, however, are my intellectual property.
I do not claim to own any of the official characters or settings or any other part of Star Wars.
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LittleFoxStudio's avatar
Wow. Poor Ara. She seems like a neat character.