Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

Thankfully, when I gave the order to move, it seemed that the Mandalorians were still stunned by my overwhelming display of magic, so rather than argue that there was no way I could possibly know where we were going, Corvak just nodded and followed after Tatnia, Julus and myself.

Before exiting the vault, we carefully peeked out into the hall, checking cautiously that the two large turrets that were built into the hallway walls weren't about to cook us through our armor. After two short peeks, it was clear that Racer had, in fact, disabled the security outside the vault.

"It's clear, let's go!" I called out, leading the way through the hall with the Clairvoyance spell already cast.

We turned off the main hall almost immediately, ignoring the large, Hutt-sized elevator at the end of it, walking through what was clearly designed as staff access. It was easy to figure out, as the second this new hallway was out of view from the main one, the Jedi Temple-esque decorations vanished. Instead, the halls were dull, mostly made from duracrete with smoothed floors. Hell, there were even fewer lights lining the walls. It was a clear and obvious way to save money.

"Jeeze, what a cheapskate," Julus said muttered, looking around the roughly made hall. "It's like walking in one of the slum buildings back home..."

"You have no idea," Corvak said, almost too quiet to hear. "It gets worse around the base."

We continued to follow the Clairvoyance spell through rough staff sections of the palace as much as possible, only occasionally pushing through more official, thoroughly decorated, and Hutt-accessible areas. Eventually, we finally arrived at a small turbolift, and we all piled in. It was a tight fit, but we managed. It took a bit of riding up and down to figure out what floor we were supposed to get off on, but eventually, we figured it out.

"What… magic is leading you to them?" Corvak asked as we jogged down another hall. "I don't doubt you're doing something, but…"

"Relax, I get it. It's difficult to just switch on belief like that," snapping my fingers for emphasis as I took cover behind a corner and peeked around, motioning everyone forward when I saw it was clear. "I was mostly just trying to push everyone past the scoffing and eye-rolling phase so we could get a move on. As for what sort of magic, it's a spell used to locate things. It taps into a sort of underlayer that is affected by knowledge and understanding. As long as I can point it to the right target, it can lead me to it. Assuming it exists or it's possible."

He seemed to chew on that for a while, my short and sweet description obviously catching him a bit off-center. Luckily, he was smart enough to put that aside and focus on the task at hand since not long after that, we jogged head first into our first problem. A ragtag group of mercenaries, guards, or other criminals hired by Grakkus. Whether they were actually trying to do their jobs or were now running rampant through the palace, it didn't matter since the second they spotted us, they opened fire.

"Dammit, we don't have time for this," I cursed. "Skyforged, push forward! Corvak, use us as cover!"

Barely waiting to see him nod in agreement, I stepped around the corner, casting Superior Ward with one hand and conjuring my own extra armor with the other. I held out the Superior Ward for Julus and Tatnia while I relied on my conjured armor to protect me from anything unexpected. Together, we moved down the hall, blocking blaster bolts ranging from civilian pistols to much larger rifles. By the time we collectively managed to drop the last guard into a smoking heap, all my magical protections had failed, and our armor was a lot hotter than I felt comfortable with.

I could see a harsh warning blinking on my helmet readout, warning me that I was pushing my armor too far and that if I didn't let it cool, systems would start to fail. As it was, it would probably need to be reforged. I was tempted to try and think of a way to cool us off with Frostbite, without breaking anything from the rapid cooldown, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk. The temperature would drop slowly on its own.

With the rampaging guards dealt with, we pushed deeper, bypassing damage from our explosive droids and avoiding another large group of guards before finally reaching a large, sealed-off door. Julus attempted to open it with the control panel but didn't get very far. Luckily, we had another way in.

"Boxi?" I called out through my comms. "Is everything alright? We could use some help with this door."

"VIP Racer is focusing on guiding the primary group to the ship, slicing through the central elevator security system," Boxi responded. "VIP advises patience."

Resisting the urge to snap back as the sass, I instead turned back to Corvak.

"Hang tight. Racer is guiding the other team out and into position," I explained, the leader letting out what I assumed was a curse in Mando'a, but nodded a moment later.

We moved into better positions, getting ready to hold the door against another wave of guards if we needed to. Rather than station at the door itself, we split up and moved to each end of the hallway so we could use the corners as cover. After four minutes had passed, I could feel the tension reaching a breaking point when Boxi finally responded.

"VIP Racer is breaching the door controls."

"Here we go, doors opening!" I called out down the hall, all of us rushing back to the door. I could almost feel his anxiety and nervousness, the overwhelming need to know that his people were safe.

The door opened slowly, revealing a significantly large singular room. It could have easily passed for a large stable. In fact, at some point, it might have actually been one. Now, however, it served as a prison, with rows of beds along one side, an open bathroom system along the other, and around twenty-five people. All of them stood as the door began to open, caught off guard by the sudden activity.

It was easy to see that the occupants looked rough, from dirty and nervous kids to grim and tired-looking adults. All of the adults were quick to pull the children behind them, and three women carrying babies pulled even further back behind the group.

Despite their unfortunate circumstances, even before they realized that something was different, none of them looked scared. Determined and anxious, yes, but not scared. These were clearly hardy, trained people. When Corvak was finally revealed, words of relief spread through the crowd, and one woman, carrying a baby of no more than a year old, quickly stepped forward.

Corvak met her halfway, pulling off his helmet and dropping it to the ground, embracing the woman tightly before kissing the child's forehead. The armored Mandalorians that accompanied him were right on his heels, hugging children and partners alike. After a moment, I popped the seals on my helmet, nodding for Tatnia and Julus to guard the doors.

Corvak turned, his partner turning as well, focusing on me with a tight smile. His partner's expression seemed a bit more grateful but was similarly guarded. I got my first good look at his face, realizing that he was younger than I assumed, maybe just a few years older than me. He looked to be about thirty-five, maybe forty, with dirty blonde hair that was cut short. He had a scar along the right side of his face and dark brown, almost hazel eyes.

"Thank you, Deacon," He said, extending his hand. "Thank you for your help…"

"What else are friends for?" I said with a smirk, shaking his covered limb. "We can't stop just quite yet, though. We still need to get everyone off the planet. I know Grakkus had a fail-safe, but will it activate if they leave?"

"No, he threatened to flood the room with poison upon his death," The woman holding onto Corvak said, looking down periodically at the baby bundled in her arms. As she spoke, she gestured to a nearby grate. "None of us have had anything implanted."

"Well, as horrifying as the idea is, it means we don't have to worry about cutting anything out," I said, nodding as Corvak and his partner winced. "For now, we need to move. The longer we hang around, the more likely it is we get pinned by encroaching forces."

Corvak nodded, and he quickly got everyone together, organizing his people to follow us out. He assigned two of his trained Mandalorians to watch the back of the group, while he stayed up in front with us. Soon, we had left the prison room behind, with my Clairvoyance spell locked onto the Talos Chariot.

Moving through the palace with a trail of civilians was considerably more nerve-wracking than just jogging through with us. Granted, the older civilians had at least basic combat training, and after we wiped out a small contingent of patrolling guards, most of them were even armed, but it was still nerve-wracking. This was especially true when we ran into a sized turbolift, one that was too small to fit everyone in all at once. Instead, we were forced to go in chunks, splitting the group five times and making my blood pressure skyrocket.

Eventually, we were close enough to the landing platform that I informed Boxi to escort Racer back to the ship. We ran into the commando droids and the astromech as we went further, and after I convinced everyone that the droids were under our command, we finally arrived at the massive landing platform.

When we first arrived at the palace, the landing platform had been more or less pristine, clean, and orderly. Now, it looked like a warzone. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of corpses littered the opening, all of them Grakkus's guards. There were craters, ruined ships along the side, and collapsed pillars along the hallway and out into the platform. Luckily, Ahsoka must have felt us coming, as when we stuck our heads out, they didn't shoot at us.

We quickly crossed the battlefield to the ship. Tatnia and Julus immediately started guiding the civilians inside through the boarding ramp while I made a beeline for Ahsoka. She was standing by a barricade made up of a ruined speeder that I did not recognize. It was wrecked and had clearly been shot down, presumably by the Chariot.

"How is everything?" I asked, looking around at the destruction they had wrought. "Did anything even get close?"

"There was a pair of starfighters that buzzed us a few times," She said, shaking her head. "We got them on the third pass with the Chariot's weapons."

"Okay, well, unless something is wrong, then we are good to go," I said, my deep disgust for this planet leaking into my voice. "I want to get the fuck off this planet."

"Yeah, let's go."

As we made our way to the boarding ramp, I looked over at her. I could see that she was holding something in her hand. When I realized what it was, I frowned.

"Did you get it done?" I asked, holding out my hand.

"...No. I couldn't, but Vaz did," she explained, looking away and passing me a simple-looking detonator. "I'm sorry, it's just-"

"You don't have to apologize," I assured her, patting her shoulder as both of us stopped by the boarding ramp. "He was defenseless. Plenty of people would agree with you."

She looked at me through her helmet, and after a moment, she nodded before taking the lead up the stairs and into the ship.

As quick as we could, with everyone and everything piled into the Chariot, Calima was given the order to take off. The civilians and Mandalorians were down in the cargo hold, watching us with suspicion as we stepped up through the boarding area. I ignored the looks, as I couldn't really blame them for being suspicious, not after what they had been through.

Still, I could give them something.

"Corvak," I called out as I pushed through the people. Once I was close enough, I handed him the detonator. "This is for you."

"What is it?" He asked, taking it from me carefully.

"It's connected to a bomb that's currently wrapped around Grakkus's neck," I explained, turning back and leaving him behind. "Better safe than sorry, right?"

I left the cargo hold, with most of my team staying down with the newcomers. As Tatnia and I rushed to the bridge, I could hear a loud chant of what was probably victory in Mando'a, and I couldn't help but smirk as I jogged up the stairs to the second deck. We arrived at the bridge just in time for something to impact the ship, rocking us as we came to a stop.

"What's the situation?" I called out as Tatnia sat down in the co-pilot's seat, and I kicked one of the gunner droids out of theirs.

"A squadron of mixed fighters and a small modified gunship of some kind just took off from somewhere else in the palace," Calima explained. "Must be some sort of protocol in place because the second we took off, they came hunting for us."

"Some sort of blanket security?" Tatnia guessed. "Anyone leaves without my permission, kill them?"

"Probably more of a vengeance thing," I pointed out. "Doesn't matter. Call in the Loyal Hound and deploy the teardrops. Tell them to cover us as best they can."

The starfighters were a mismatch of different models and modifications, though all of them looked to be of good quality. They broke up into different groups, catching up to us quickly while the gunship lagged behind.

Before we could deploy the teardrops, the starfighters made several attack runs on us. They came from all angles, making it difficult to keep track of them and even harder to accurately predict them. We managed to take down one of them, the starfighter exploding into a ball of fire before. Still, the ship rocked and bounced as they peppered our shields with laser fire, no doubt weakening it.

Finally, all of the teardrops deployed, and together, they tore after the starfighters, chasing them down. They even managed to take down a few of them, but not without heavy casualties.

They did their job however, as while they were engaging the starfighters, they couldn't come after us. This gave the Talos Chariot the opportunity to burn atmo and cut through the lower atmosphere as fast as we could. The ship rumbled and bounced through the turbulence as we climbed higher and higher.

Unfortunately, while we were avoiding the starfighters, the gunship had time to catch up, angling to intercept and hammering our shields as it did.

"Seventy-five percent and dropping!" Tatnia warned as I swiveled my gun to hammer against the gunship. "Seventy, Sixty-eight…"

We weathered the barrage as best we could, hitting fifty percent as we left the atmosphere. We were starting to take damage from feedback energy, with warning sounds going off throughout the ship. Calima pushed the ship to its max, even lowering energy to the weapons to boost the thrusters.

Finally, our savior arrived, the Loyal Hound dropped out of hyperspace nearby. We angled to intercept the larger ship, which shifted to do the same. When they entered the appropriate range, the combat ship opened up on our pursuers, slamming turbolaser blasts into their shields as our cruiser put itself in between us and the gunship. It forced us to slow down, but the Loyal Hound was already driving off the gunship with its superior weapons power, the starfighters retreating with it.

"Calima, link up with the Hound and make a jump somewhere clear," I said, standing up and letting out a long breath. "We might be out of the frying pan, but we've got more than thirty Mandalorians in our cargo hold, ready to start an even bigger fire if we don't handle them right."