Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

Within twenty seconds of stepping into the building, we hit our first wall of enemy combatants. Dozens of stormtroopers and uniformed security poured out several doors as we took a corner, clearly trying to ambush us as we stepped in. They opened fire with little hesitation, dozens of them raking their weapons over us. If we had been anyone else, if we hadn't been so careful about my team going first, their plan would have likely put us in serious trouble. Instead, several dozen blaster bolts scattered off our armor, my team acting as a human shield wall. I dual-cast chain lightning down the hall, dropping two or three people with each cast.

My blue crackling magic was not all that returned fire, either, as both my team and several rebels opened fire. Having slammed against an immovable object, the Imperial collapsed in on itself almost immediately, the line faltering as we returned fire en mass.

Once the last of the ambushing force fell, I turned and tended to the wounded. As good as my crew had gotten at playing living shields, it was inevitable that some laserfire made it past us. Luckily, everyone's wounds were treatable, and I quickly brought everyone back to their feet.

As soon as we could, we pushed on, following my Clairvoyance deeper into the facility. Almost immediately, we ran into another security door, this one heavily guarded. A pair of E-Web heavy blasters had been built into the security checkpoint, raised up on either side of the large doorway. They must have known we were coming because they opened fire the second Ahsoka and I stepped around the corner. The Jedi had just enough time to reach out and grab me with the Force. She pulled me off my feet and flung me back around the corner, all while deflecting a barrage of powerful blaster bolts, slamming them into the ground and wall, before she could dive back around the corner as well. The Imperials continued to fire for a good five seconds after we were behind cover, turning the far wall into red-hot Swiss cheese.

"Dammit," I cursed, Tatnia helping me up to my feet as Ahsoka popped back up to hers, finishing a simple roll. "Thanks for the catch, Ahsoka."

"I felt it just as we stepped around the corner," She explained. "How do we get past them?"

"I go out again, but this time, I'm ready for them," I explained with a shrug. "Nal, Tatnia, you ready?"

They both nodded, reaching to their belts to pull out some simple grenades. Our quartermaster, having finally settled into their role and finished stabilizing our general supplies, had finally found a contact for military equipment, meaning we could buy our own stuff, including a limited amount of explosives. Which meant standing back and lobbing a few grenades was now a valid option again.

I quickly charged up some Bound Armor before dual-casting Superior Ward. After checking to see if my people were set, I led the way in, both of them following directly behind me. My ward caught a trio of bolts before collapsing, followed by my Bound armor, which caught two more before shattering. By the time I was shoved back by a quartet of powerful bolts of red plasma hitting my armor directly, Nal and Tatnia had thrown their weapons. I cast Superior Ward again before finally pulling back around the corner.

Two explosions rocked the hallway as the grenades went off. A quick check showed the defensive positions had taken heavy damage, both of the guns unmanned and damaged.

"Let's move!" I called out before charging down the hall, double-tapping the stormtroopers that guarded it. "The longer we waste in these halls, the less metal we will be able to get out of here!"

Ahsoka quickly got to work on the doors while I leaned against the wall, watching my armor temperature slowly drop. I was lucky that the bolts had hit in wildly different places, or I would have been tearing half-melted beskar off myself, probably taking a fair amount of me with it in the process.

Once we were through the second doorway, we made quick progress through the facility, slamming our way through two stormtrooper patrols and another heavy security door before finally finding one of many storage vaults in the structure.

As Ahsoka set to work quickly, cutting the large, secure-looking door open with her lightsabers, I looked around the room. The room surrounding the fault was some sort of transfer station, filled with scanning equipment and other tools. It was probably intended as a data checkpoint to record information about materials passing through it, but it was obviously completely evacuated. I raised a pistol and shot a security camera before turning to everyone and nodding.

"Once the vault is open, let's get the carts loaded quickly," I said before gesturing to a trio of carts along the side of the room. "Let's start with the carts so generously supplied by the Empire. With any luck, we can grab everything from this vault at once and get it back to the ship."

As we prepared, Ahsoka finished getting through the door. Rather than cut through it completely, though, she spent a minute testing the door before slicing several specific spots, before using the Force to jam it open.

"Well done. Sit a minute and recuperate while we load up," I said, patting Ahsoka on the shoulder before walking past her, guiding the labor droids and rebels into the vault.

With the labor droids working at double speed, we managed to empty the vault in record time, loading up an impressive amount of platinum and gold onto the hover carts, both the ones we found and the ones we brought.

Once the carts were full, the labor droids grabbed the remaining ingots in their hands, and we left the vault behind. Loaded down with our first batch of precious metals, the trip back took a bit longer, but between the lack of patrols and the doors already being open, we made good time. As we pushed back through the facility, I had Ahsoka mark the floor to keep us from following the same path as before. My Clairvoyance might make it nearly impossible for me to get lost, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

We arrived at the facility entrance to find the area around it and around the Chariot as a warzone. Or rather, a dead warzone, as between the ship and the Mandalorians, nothing was actively fighting back. There were several armed speeders with holes matching the ship's cannons and at least thirty stormtroopers scattered around the mostly open area. I could only imagine that someone was cursing the fact that the large clearing around the facility, which was great for efficiency, was now a massive killing floor for the Mandalorians and the Chariot.

"First batch coming through!" I called out as we came out the main entrance, stepping out into the open ship landing station. "Nice work!"

"Thanks, wouldn't be able to do it without the cover of the Chariot," Corvak admitted.

We quickly loaded the metal onto the cargo lift, leaving a handful of the labor droids behind to move it around inside the ship, making more space for our next run. Once everything was offloaded, we turned around and headed back to the facility. As we were leaving, making our way through the primary entrance, Calima messaged through the comms.

"Just heard back from the Loyal Hound," she said. "They report their mission went well, they spent a bit of time softening up the area before dropping off the droids. They should be back any minute to keep us covered."

"Roger that, going in for another run!"

For the next long while, we went in and out of the facility over half a dozen times, raiding several more vaults. Some of them were small enough that we emptied them with room to spare, while others required multiple trips. When that happened, I split my team up, leaving Tatnia, Vaz, and Ahsoka behind to guard the vault and prevent any more security teams from setting up ambushes, while Julus, Nal, Han, Chewie and I would guard the Rebel commandos and labor droids back to the ship.

Frequently, we were forced to plow through dozens of Stormtroopers and other security staff, as well as blast our way through security doors and entrenched forces looking to drive us back. None of them succeeded for very long, though we did have a few casualties, including two rebel commandos who died before I could heal them. Han also took a hit across his thigh, but since he was wearing one of our uniforms under his pants, he was unharmed.

On our third trip, dropping off the last bit of gold and a sizable amount of electrum, we stepped out into the open space to find it in significantly poorer quality than it had been before. Large Imperial speeders and TIE fighters lay destroyed around the Chariot, as well as a pair of troop transporters that were barely recognizable through the flames that engulfed them. Fallen stormtroopers surrounded the pair, none of them having made it very far, most of them burning with their ride.

"You guys doing alright?" I asked, stopping by Corvak, casting Respite on anyone who seemed to be lagging behind as they ran to the Chariot. "Looks like things are getting interesting."

"Just glad your other ship came back in time," The Mandalorian leader said. "With Chariot stuck on the ground, she was an easy target for TIEs. Now the Hound can cover her."

"Good, glad they got back in time."

We made four more trips after that, completely emptying a chromium vault as well as one filled with Vandanite, Varium, Colat, and Trimantium, before we finally got a message from Calima again, this time with bad news.

"The party is over, Boss. The defense fleet is on its way back," She explained. "The secondary fleet just jumped in to cover us, but they are calling it. We've already got more than our credits worth, so they say it's time to go."

"Copy that, finishing our last load and heading back," I responded before turning to everyone and gesturing for them to pick up the pace. "Let's go people! Last run before we get out of here!"

"Took longer than I thought," Han commented, a bit surprised. "I was starting to think we would run out of room first!"

"Don't think too hard about good luck," Julus responded, tossing the Correllian a large ingot of metal.

By now, we had all been moving nearly non-stop for a long time, and most of my mana was going into Respite spells, regenerating everyone's stamina to keep them going. We quickly emptied the last vault, rushing through the halls of the once-secure storage facility. As we were halfway back, the comms clicked on again.

"You need to pick it up, Boss," Calima said, a hard edge to her voice. "Some of the smaller ships in the defense fleet have broken off and are headed to us. They must have gotten some sort of message through. We don't have long before leaving is going to get very complicated."

I cursed and shouted, everyone doing their best to go just a bit faster. Seeing that they were lagging behind, I made the executive decision to leave the labor droids behind since they were stuck at a lower speed. They were all cleaned and wiped in preparation for this mission, but it sucked to watch them fall behind as we ran. Fortunately, without them holding us back, we could push ourselves to go faster, even with the large cargo we were pushing. I was running my mana down to nothing, keeping everyone going, but we finally pulled around the last corner.

The Mandalorians were there, packed up ready to go. Rather than slow down to talk, they quickly started to run alongside our group, covering us as we charged across the short gap to the Chariot. I got a quick look at the surrounding landing space, shaking my head at the dozens of transport and other bits of wreckage. The Loyal Hound and the Chariot had both taken down everything the planet had thrown at them, but now we needed to go before we got overwhelmed.

Most of us ran up into the ship through the forward boarding ramp, with the rest of the ground team riding the cargo elevator up into the ship, pushing along their carts of future beskar. The second we were all on board, I gave Calima the command to leave, and we quickly lifted off from the destroyed and wreckage-covered landing area. While everyone shuffled around, looking for a place to sit or hold on, I rushed up to the second deck, heading directly to the bridge. I could hear Han following after me as I ran.

"How we doing?" I asked, peering over Calima's seat to watch as she guided the Chariot up and over the facility wall.

"I can feel the extra weight," she admitted, guiding the ship upwards, the forward viewport nothing but clear skies. "She is… staggering a bit. Won't be able to make… her dance."

"And the Brick?"

"Already on board," She explained. "They landed after the news came in."

I nodded, turning to look over the chair of the sensors, reading it over their shoulders. It looked like the Loyal Hound was easily keeping pace with us despite its larger size. As I did, Han literally shoved one of the naval droids from the gunner station behind me, tapping and running the station like a pro.

"Show me more," I asked the clone manning the station. "I want to see the defense fleet and ours as well."

The soldier nodded, flicking to a more expanded view, showing a much greater range of space. I could see our secondary fleet already in position, high above us, as we climbed through the atmosphere. I could also see the Imperial defense fleet getting closer, both the main chunk and the three ships hunting us. The distraction fleet was chasing after and harassing the main group of Imperials.

"Send a message to the distraction group, tell them to break off their chase, and come defend us," I ordered. "We aren't going to make it past that trio of ships without help, and the Imperials have already made up their mind, harassing them isn't going to do anything!"

"Aye, sir!" The comms officer said, quickly repeating my message and sending it out immediately.

It took a second, but someone in charge of the distraction fleet must have seen my wisdom, as they broke off their chase and burned atmo to intercept the smaller group of ships the defense fleet sent out to chase us down. Even as we breached out of the atmosphere, the distraction fleet had destroyed the chasing ships, and the secondary fleet had engaged what remained of the Imperial fleet.

We didn't get to watch much of the fight, however, as the second our ships were out of the planet's gravity well, we sent an all-clear message and jumped to lightspeed, leaving the planet behind.

A loud cheer, clear as day even with a floor between us, echoed from the first deck below us. They must have felt our jump to lightspeed and realized that it meant we were free and clear. As the cheer started to die down, Calima looked over her shoulder, her hand hovering over a button.

"You wanna say something, Boss?" She asked.

"Yeah, put me on," I said, waiting for her to hit the button before speaking up again. "Well done, everyone! The operation was a success. We will be dropping out of hyperspace in fifteen minutes to meet with the rest of the fleet before traveling a bit further to transfer our loot and get you guys back to more comfortable accommodations. In the meantime, pick a nontoxic pile of precious metals and try to make yourself comfortable."

Another cheer echoed through the ship, and I couldn't help but laugh, letting out a relieved chuckle as Calima ended the call. I gave her a nod before making my way out of the bridge, dropping down onto the couch with a sigh.