sdjalana | A little something from an upcoming story...

Still working on this story, but RL events are once again conspiring against me. I'll eventually have the entire thing written out and posted, but for now, this will have to do.

Carth swore as debris showered over him. That last blaster shot had been much too close for comfort. He risked a shot over the top of the packing crate he was hiding behind and was rewarded with return fire along with more debris from blasted cargo. He threw his arms over his head, futilely trying to protect himself from random falling objects, and swore again.

“Canderous! Where the frack are you?” He pitched his voice to be heard over the continuous whine of blaster shots and looked around for the Mandalorian’s large form.

“Look to your left, Republic,” came the almost jubilant response, followed by the sound of more blaster fire and a triumphant exclamation. Carth turned to see Canderous crouched behind a hastily erected barrier that was much sturdier than the battered crate serving as his personal shield. Not surprising, the grin on Canderous’ face belied the grim situation they found themselves in. At least one person was having fun.

“Was this what you had in mind?” Carth asked sourly, waving his blaster around to indicate the general chaos.

“What, not big enough for you?” came the bland reply. Canderous mockingly returned the pilot’s rude gesture, then turned his attention back to the fighting. “Oh, I suppose you might want to let the others know their diversion is arriving a bit ahead of schedule.”

The nonchalant tone grated on Carth’s nerves, but he had to agree. Their carefully crafted plan was rapidly spiraling out of control, and it was only a matter of time before things fell apart completely. Activating his comlink, Carth contacted the first person who came to mind.

“Shara, it’s Carth. You’ll need to hurry up—“

“Bit busy at the moment, flyboy. I’ll get back to you.” Her signal cut off before Carth could advise her of the advanced timeline. He frowned, but decided against trying to reestablish the link. That noise right before she cut off contact sounded suspiciously like the ignition of a lightsaber, and he didn’t think it would be wise to distract her if there was trouble. He thumbed open his comlink again.

“Bastilla, you and Juhani might want to start getting out of there—“

“Not now, Carth,” she interrupted tersely. “We’ve got a situation here that needs to be taken care of first. Bastilla out.”

Carth stared in consternation as the fighting around him increased in intensity. The situation was deteriorating rapidly. “Canderous!” he roared. “We need to get back to the Ebon Hawk to help Mission, or none of us will be leaving this rock!”

“Sure thing, Republic… just as soon as you ask the nice rebels to stop the riot we convinced them to start.”

“Frell,” Carth muttered, then dived for Canderous’ position as the crate in front of him exploded.