31 BBY
Each of the Federation's Munificent-class star frigates would have been described as four fifths of a kilometer long in Japan, or half a mile in Germania. It had been years since Tan'ya had used either measurement system, but watching the approaching vessels from the window of her speeder almost left her feeling strangely overwhelmed. Even the largest battleship in Earth's history, the Yamato, was only two hundred and fifty meters long. The scale of this galaxy was so different compared to anything on Earth, with wars waged across lightyears and some legendary battlefields choked with billions of dead.
Seeing the sun shining down on the frigates, so vast that they cast shadows over the spaceports terminal building, impressed upon Tan'ya the scale of what she was about to attempt.
Shaking her head, she looked forward, noticing one of the House Guard glancing back at her in the rearview mirror. The guard next to him in the passenger seat passed a small dark blob of some unknown substance behind his headrest to the man sitting next to Tan'ya. The driver, a slightly older soldier from Coruscant, didn't take any, but the newly trained guards from Serenno both broke off a piece each and were still chewing on them as they fixed their helmets in place.
The driver, a Sergeant Sio, noticed her watching the exchange, and explained, "It's not a food, it's a stainer, a local battle tradition. The Colonel encourages them to keep such things if it helps morale. "
Tan'ya glanced over at the man in the passenger seat, who turned to face her.
"Why the tradition?" She asked him in Outer Rim Basic.
"Don't want alien to see smiling white teeth in shadows, Highness." He answered in heavily accented Standard. Of course one of the main draws for people to join her House Guard was the education that came with it. An opportunity to learn to read and write, as well as learn Galactic Standard was sorely tempting for anyone out in the villages looking to raise their standing in life. "Or so I told. Old way. For raiding."
"Are the other men doing the same?" Tan'ya asked.
Still smiling, he nodded. "All Serennoan is. Be a helmet in way, but is old way. Not for Coruscanti, eh?"
Tan'ya considered for a moment, before holding out her hand.
He looked at her surprised, before offering her the stainer.
Tan'ya broke off a small piece then handed the rest back to the man. She wrapped up her portion in her handkerchief, before pocketing it. She didn't want to do anything that might alert the Trade Federation of her intentions, a Princess with blackened teeth and gums would certainly look strange, but she would try some herself later.
"I'm Serennoan, too." She said to him, and looked forward. If participating in such a simple tradition helped inspire loyalty in her men, then it was worth it.
He stared at her for a long moment, before looking back ahead. No doubt he was excited to see his first battle, even if hopefully no one would die today.
Tan'ya's convoy of speeders finally pulled up outside the space port. A bodyguard from the vehicle behind her ran forward to hold the passenger door for her as she stepped out onto the tarmac, feeling the tiny spots of an early rain mixing into her upraised hair.
Today she wore her hair high, stylised and formal looking like coreward nobility. Of course she had her cape and chain that marked her out as heir, but it was over the top of a flowing blue dress with silver droplets around her neck. It even came with a little tiara of Serenno silver, a precious and coveted substance. It was an outfit that wasn't much use for combat, but helped to sell the deception she was spinning. Normally, Tan'ya wouldn't want to wear something like that, she still remembered being a man two lifetimes ago, but this whole plan hinged on selling this persona.
From the first speeder at the front of the convoy, the Colonel emerged with his plastoid helmet under his arm. He made eye contact with her, nodding once before putting his helmet on. Gon Seith was in his mid fifties, and declining as a soldier. His marksmanship was impressive, but his speed and stamina were fading. All he really had left was a good eye and his physical strength, but that would have to go eventually as well.
Tan'ya still kept him on as the captain of the House Guard for his wealth of experience, and also because it would be hard to find a suitable replacement. Eventually, the House Guard would be staffed and run by people only from Serenno, but for now most of its officers were drawn from Dooku's old and trusted friends from Coruscant Security Services. They stood out, compared to the others. Often pale from years of patrolling the streets of Coruscant where even on the city's surface, the sun only touched the pavements for an hour in a day at most. They were also older, with touches of gray here and there in their hair.
Among her guards, Tan'ya could pick out the ones born on Serenno pretty easily, even with the dark plastoid armors covering their skins and faces. The Serennoans also had a different way of standing, and moving. Like they were less used to moving across flat services as they lifted their feet a little higher to avoid obstacles that weren't there. They also seemed vaguely disgusted and curious about the Nemoidians that were approaching.
A small delegation of three Trade Federation officers were hurrying over towards Tan'ya, accompanied by a troop of battle droids. All of them wore captain's hats, but from what Tan'ya had read of the Trade Federations regulations, a fleet this small wouldn't even be commanded by a Commodore, just the Captain with the most years of service. For some reason one of the Nemoidions seemed like he was glaring at Tan'ya.
She wasn't sure why, she only remembered him as the Captain who had given her a guided tour a few years ago, Suib Sugrath.
"A warm welcome to you, Your Highness." The lead captain bowed at her, speaking in that way that adults do when they are talking to a child. It was sort of annoying, but at this moment it served Tan'ya's purposes.
"Oh, are you the Admiral?" She feigned ignorance, widening her eyes and smiling brightly. Right now she was nothing but a stupid, spoiled child.
"No, I'm Senior Captain Rerley Dratfat." He smiled nicely then glanced back at the other two, narrowing his eyes at Suib who looked like he was balling his fists. Captain Dratfat looked back at Tan'ya, and said hesitantly. "I'm sorry Your Highness, but there's been a little miscommunication. We organized this inspection with the Count's Defence Advisor, a Colonel Seith?"
"Actually, I was only acting as the Defence Advisor's intermediary." Seith explained as he approached. "Tan'ya here is the Count's Advisor to the Defence."
Captain Dratfat opened his mouth then closed it at that, no doubt stunned at what must seem like such absolute backwater petty nepotism. Behind him, Captain Sugrath leaned forward and began to whisper something in his ear.
"Later, Suib." Dratfat hissed at him.
"We need to talk." Sugrath insisted, looking around at Tan'ya and her bodyguards.
Tan'ya kept up her airheaded smile, internally fighting back panic. Had word gotten to the Trade Federation? Or did Tan'ya's excessive number of bodyguards tip them off?
She thought thirty was barely enough of them as it was, but if the Nemoidions were getting suspicious already then the whole operation might be doomed before it even started!
One of the advantages of B-1 Battle Droids was that they could be folded into small, mobile forms, and concealed in countless small compartments. At a moment's notice, any of these droid stations could be switched on, and Tan'ya as well as her bodyguards would be surrounded by swarms of disposable droids out here on the tarmac, pinched from multiple directions before they even got inside! The damned things didn't even need to be good marksmen under such conditions.
"Is there something wrong?" Colonel Seith asked.
"Nothing's wrong." Dratfat insisted, turning back towards his subordinate. "We can talk about this later."
For a moment Captain Sugrath looked like he was about to explode. "We need to talk about this now."
Now Dratfat was starting to look angry. He looked between Tan'ya and the Colonel, before bowing in apology. "I'm sorry, I'll be right back."
He hurried away with Sugrath, moving back through the ranks of battle droids to have an animated talk. They were both obviously high strung, the wider Dratfat almost making shushing motions with his hands, until Sugrath dramatically ripped off his hat. With a murderous glare he cast it down at Dratfat's feet. The senior Captain's face hardened, before he snatched it up. He pushed a button on his communicator and a handful of battle droids broke off from the back of the escort.
Sugrath stood in place, staring at his commander defiantly until the battle droids escorted him away. Dratfat looked down at the abandoned hat in his hands, before crumpling it and stuffing it in his pocket as he shook his head and walked back over to Tan'ya and the Colonel.
"What was that about?" Gon Seith asked.
"A last minute disciplinary issue." Dratfat replied, smiling obsequiously. "Nothing to be worried about."
That disciplinary issue seemed to be severe enough for a Captain to be taken to the brig. Unless Tan'ya read that scene incorrectly, him ripping off his own hat was an extreme form of protest, likely objecting to Tan'ya's thirty armed guards being invited onto the ship.
Had Sugrath figured out what Tan'ya was planning?
Tan'ya looked to Seith, and saw he seemed to be reaching the same conclusions. "Perhaps we should arrange this for another day?"
"Oh, no need for that!" Dratfat interrupted. "We've already landed all three ships for inspection purposes. Besides, there's no need to delay the Princess just because someone's a little high strung."
They needed the ships, and Dratfat at least seemed to not know what was happening. Though his greasy sucking up to the client could be an act.
Tan'ya steeled herself. In war there was never certainty, and for the sake of her planet those ships had to be captured.
"Let's continue with the tour, and just get this out of the way." Tan'ya said to Seith. "You know how insistent Father can be about these things." She whined, laying on the spoiled princess persona a little more.
Orders received, the Colonel nodded, fixing his helmet in place. "Guard, form up!" He said over their encrypted communication channels, and all the House Guards, Serenno and Coruscanti alike, formed up behind their princess in a marching position.
Their helmets were just standard plastoids, but marked with the scales of the Tirra'Takka all over them, and cloudlike bushy brows above the eyes. With vibroblade bayonets at the end of their rifles, and their long capes they looked more decorative than practical. Officers were distinguished from the rest of the crews by the iron chains of office at their neck, similar to the one Tan'ya had to mark her as heir but different in substance to indicate their different role. The crews of the Trade Federation fleet were professionals, but they rarely saw combat. Tan'ya dared to hope they focused on the flamboyant dress of the House Guards, thus failing to spot the deck sweeper stun guns strapped to their hips.
As Tan'ya's escort approached the ship, she watched the starport's hover tractors slowly dragging their manual docking clamps out over the tarmac towards the parked ships. One by one, they were fixed in place, and Tan'ya felt relief as the landing gear of each ship was clamped to the planet with durasteel claws.
At least, if nothing else, the Federation ships wouldn't be able to fly away. As they marched up the ramp into the ship, six of Tan'ya bodyguards wordlessly peeled off the back of their formation to go secure the keys from the port workers, just to be doubly certain that the Federation couldn't take off.
The corridors of the ship were much as Tan'ya remembered them, and to her relief none of the droid deployment stations were open or active. They passed a dozen intersections in the maze of durasteel, Captain Dratfat occasionally glancing at Tan'ya.
The tensions had been so high that she realized he was gauging her reaction. She was his customer and he was looking for feedback.
"Is rust ever a concern?" She asked him, and almost regretted doing so.
"In an oxygenated environment, oxidation is a constant concern. It's a dreadfully corrosive substance that we breathe." He smiled at his own joke, and Tan'ya forced a small giggle. "Durasteel is usually quite resilient though. The rate of decay is very slow, and as long as we keep everything clean and maintain our life support systems, a ship like this could theoretically enjoy centuries of service."
"I see."
"It's rare to see, but occasionally when you're in a busy port, particularly in the Outer Rim, you'll spot someone in a hull so old it could have been from the Old Republic!" He laughed and shook his head. Then he looked to Tan'ya, before saying in a slightly lower voice. "Are you aware of your father's defense plans? The old relics he's having refurbished?"
Ah, he'd heard that Serenno was starting to create its own navy, and now he was probing for information. It didn't matter though, Tan'ya might tell him anything so long as it would keep him talking.
"Yes, as the Advisor to the Defense I was told." Tan'ya said. "I even signed the documents."
"Refurbishing a ship is almost as expensive as buying one new." He said in a knowing tone, shaking his head. "For the cost of a single outdated Hammerhead, he could afford almost a decade of service from one of our much larger ships, and he wouldn't even need to pay for its maintenance and upkeep!"
"Is that so?" Tan'ya demurred, just as they rounded a corner and finally the bridge was up ahead! She glanced back to see her Guards had noticed too, and many were beginning to loosen the straps on their hip holsters. "Do you think perhaps we should rent a larger ship instead then?" Tan'ya asked Dratfat.
"Oh, I don't know if it's my place to offer advice." Dratfat smiled, greasily. "But between you and me, I am authorized to offer discounts to favored customers. I'd be happy to talk to you about the price breaks we have once you're renting a full sized flotilla." He looked at her expectantly.
"I'd love to hear more about that!" Tan'ya quickly agreed. "And I'll be happy to tell my Father about it too."
Dratfat smirked at that, and went to open the bridge door before he hesitated. He turned to look back at Tan'ya thirty guards, and pursed his lip thoughtfully. "I'm not sure there's room for so many in there. Colonel, would you tell your men to wait here?"
"The princess needs her bodyguards." Seith replied.
"I assure you, there's no risk to her here." Dratfat insisted.
"Nevertheless, it's our duty to protect the Princess's person."
Tan'ya spoke up. "It's okay, Colonel!" If he insisted too much Dratfat might become suspicious. "I'm sure we only need a handful of guards. Say… eight of them?"
"I'd prefer all of them, Your Highness." Colonel Seith looked her in the eye.
"Eight will be fine." Tan'ya said to him, then looked to Dratfat. "Will eight be able to fit?"
Dratfat nodded after a moment. "Yes, I suppose eight won't get in the way." Though he sounded reluctant as he said it.
Almost certainly he was hoping to get her alone to try and persuade her on the necessity of a proper flotilla.
Colonel Seith called out a few names over his private channel, and a mix of Serennoan and Coruscanti guards moved to the front of the formation.
Finally, Tan'ya and her Guards stepped onto the bridge. She glanced around the room, counting just eight officers, plus the Captain himself. Relief washed over her, as Tan'ya was pleased to learn her memory of the Federation ships bridge crew was correct.
"As you can see, I run a very tight ship." Dratfat began to explain, stepping forward waving broadly to the different stations. "Here we have Lieutenant Camrad at comms, and Specialist Nondui is working the-"
"Now!" Tan'ya gave the order, and tugged Dratfat towards her with the force. He was large and heavy, but Tan'ya still had to be careful not to pull too hard and injure him. The Captain fell backwards onto his bottom, putting his hand out to stabilize himself just as the House Guards took out the deck sweepers.
The air of the deck oscillated with glowing rings of energy as her men opened up. In the first wave of stunner rounds, most of the bridge crew went down. Of the eight who had been present, six were instantly stunned unconscious without a chance to respond. The deck sweepers had a wide arc of fire, spraying out a huge quantity of charged particles to temporarily scrambled and override the target's nervous system. Even if they didn't hit the head perfectly, they had the effect of numbing limbs and extremities caught in those widening rings of crackling force.
With only a fraction of a second to respond, one of the remaining bridge crew tripped as he tried to get out of his chair, falling to the deck in a painful stagger and was helpless to avoid a follow up blast that hit him directly in the face. The only still standing Nemoidian staggered back, dropping the hot drink that he'd been carrying and desperately tried to part his uniform robes to grab at either a communicator or a blaster concealed at his hip. He didn't have the time, and was immediately brought down by overlapping fields of fire just as it looked like he was bringing up what he was reaching for.
Captain Dratfat gaped, and tried to rise to his feet only for the Colonel to come and shove his face down into the deck. "Don't move!" He yelled, putting his knee on the man's back. "Keep your hands spread!"
It wasn't hard to force him into a pair of cuffs. With him secured, Tan'ya's guards spread across the deck and cuffed all the remaining unconscious officers, before moving them to the center of the room and searching them for any concealed blasters or comms devices.
"Only one of them was carrying a blaster." A guard commented, shaking his head as though disappointed.
"It'll only take one of them to ruin this entire mission!" Seith snapped at him. "A single communicator could set off the droid defenses! A single blaster could kill you!" He turned to face his men. "That was sloppy, people! Very sloppy. They almost had a full second to respond! No use in overlapping fire for a single target." He looked around the room, before naming each man and assigning them a target for the next bridge; comms, gunnery, scanners, etc. With each man now knowing his role and having a clear target, hopefully they'd claim the next bridge even more smoothly. First though there were a few loose ends that had to be tied up here.
"Get him up." Tan'ya ordered the men who were pinning Dratfat down.
"What are you doing?" He asked her as he was lifted to his knees. "This is- Stop!"
Tan'ya ignored his cries, and started searching through the man's pockets. His robe was voluminous, but underneath it he had a much more practical vest with a variety of different items strapped to it, including his code cylinder and comm device. With some help from her men, Tan'ya quickly unstrapped him from his jacket, and left him with just his robes. Plugging the code cylinder into the ship's main console, she brought up the commander's overview screen and sighed in relief that no alerts had been sent out automatically.
With a few typed keys, she sent a message to engineers at the rear of the ship to present themselves for customer inspection at the entrance to the engineering deck.
"Colonel, would you go take care of them?" She asked him.
He took half the men and strode away, and Tan'ya tracked his progress through the ship's interior.
"Why are you doing this?" Dratfat demanded. "When the Federation finds out you've stolen my ship-"
"Captain, the lives of your captured crew depend on you." Tan'ya replied, dropping any pretense of childishness, before turning to regard him. "So let's not waste time. In order to avoid suspicion you are going to order your subordinates to allow me and my men to inspect the remaining ships. I'm going to leave some of my House Guard here with you to make sure you don't try anything foolish."
Dratfat looked like he was going to refuse for a second, until one of the guards switched on their vibro-bayonet, and held it close to his belly.
"Ever see a man spill his guts before?" He switched it off and slapped the back of the Captain's head. "Listen to the Princess, now."
"Thank you, Sergeant Forne, that's enough." Tan'ya held up a hand to forestall any further encouragement. The last thing she needed was for the captain to be obviously injured when he was issuing his orders. "Do you understand, Captain?"
He looked at her for a long moment, as if searching for the willpower to resist, before finally something seemed to break inside him and he lowered his head. Searching his mind in the Force, Tan'ya didn't find any deception, though there was a knot of worry aimed at that Captain from earlier, Sugrath.
"What has you so worried about Sugrath?"
Dratfat looked up at Tan'ya surprised, and she felt his mind racing to figure out how she knew his thoughts. "Sugrath's crew are all armed, not like mine. I'm worried that they might try something stupid and get us all killed. He was always aiming for a promotion, and he followed every regulation to the letter.
That was worrisome. Tan'ya supposed Sugrath would now be confined to his quarters, but if all his crew were armed with blaster's there was a chance for their attempt on that ship's bridge to go wrong. Plus, the Captain was clearly suspicious of Tan'ya's intentions. Technically, their contract with the Trade Federation required them to give forty eight hours notice on a ship inspection, but Dratfat had been willing to arrange it in just twelve because the Colonel asked him as a personal favor. Most likely Dratfat was willing because he knew about Serenno refitting the old Hammerheads, and was eager to try and convince her Father not to discontinue their contract when the time came.
Thinking it through, Tan'ya almost felt guilty. This Trade Federation Captain was acting more like a restaurant owner in a fast food franchise than an Officer in a professional military. At least Sugrath was acting like the captain of a warship, though in this case it seemed like he was stuck with a poor superior. Right now, Sugrath wasn't her problem. His bridge crew was.
After Colonel Seith returned with the engineers, all the Nemoidians were confined in crew quarters with the bulkheads sealed after her men had swept it for communicators. Then Dratfat was uncuffed and his uniform returned to him, so he could order the next ship to allow Tan'ya access. His performance wasn't inspiring, nor was it obviously suspicious, and Tan'ya detected no hidden messages in his words or deceptions in his thoughts.
Taking the second ship went even smoother than the first. Having given each of the eight House Guard who entered the bridge a clear target, the first burst of stunners took all of the Officer's down in an instant. Seeing that, the Captain of the second ship's hands shook uncontrollably, and he started sweating helplessly. Tan'ya plucked the man's command cylinder from quivering hands. Even more than Dratfat, he felt less like an officer and more like a store manager faced with an armed robbery. Once again, Tan'ya left four of her bodyguards behind to control the bridge crew.
Finally there was the last ship, the only one she'd personally visited before today and the one with the most potential to go wrong.
With Sugrath confined to his quarters, the Comms Officer would be the one in command, Lieutenant Prifrath. He greeted them at the entrance to the ship by himself, and felt like an angry stormcloud in the Force. His mind kept turning to Sugrath confined to his quarters, and he seemed particularly upset by this. Strapped to his hip on the exterior of his robe was a small handheld blaster.
"I was told there were thirty of you." He said, looking past Tan'ya's head.
"They were needed back at the Palace!" Tan'ya explained, mind racing to find an excuse. "My Mother decided she wanted to go on a daytrip, and we're a little short staffed, so I sent some men back to escort her. After all, I can't think of anywhere I'd be safer than aboard one of our defense ships!"
Tan'ya could feel Colonel Seith cringe at that last part in the force, and realized she'd pushed the act a little too far.
"Right." Prifrath nodded after a long awkward silence, then something caught his gaze in the distance. In his mind's eye, Tan'ya saw the docking clamps that had affixed all three ships to the ground, and felt a hint of annoyance in his mind. Usually the clamps wouldn't be used unless there was a risk of theft, with a ship being in place for an extended stay. "If you'll just give me a moment your Highness, I need to make a call to verify something."
He took out his Holocom and selected a number from his contacts.
Suddenly there was a ringing sound, as Dratfat's com device started ringing from a pouch in the Colonel's belt. Reaching out, the colonel yanked Tan'ya away by the back of her collar with one hand and whipped out his stunner with the other, clearing the line of fire for his men.
Prifrath's eyes widened fearfully and he threw himself backwards only to trip on the ramp of the ship. He'd barely put his hand on his blaster when he was struck by a dozen overlapping stunner rings.
"Move! Move! Move!" Seith yelled. "Take the bridge!"
Tan'ya paused just long enough to retrieve the code cylinder from Prifrath's belt before she followed behind her Guard as they poured into the ship. They'd only made it past the first intersection when a blaring alarm went off and all the bulkheads started to close. They rushed past them as fast they could. They just barely made it to the elevator emergency access ladder, where they climbed up towards the bridge level.
"It's closing!" The man at the top of the shaft yelled back after prying open the shafts doors. "It's closing, we're not gonna make it!"
Utilizing the Force, Tan'ya jumped off the ladder to the other side of the shaft, and leapt off it up past the men above her. She threw herself in a dive over the shoulder of the man who was holding the elevator door open. She was just in time to see the bulkhead to the bridge mere inches from closing, the mechanical teeth about to seal it in place.
Reaching out, she seized the descending plate of durasteel and Tan'ya winced at the weight and power of its machinery. So far her teaching with the Force under Sifo had emphasized learning fine control over raw power, but feeling the powerful hiss of hydraulics pushing the door down, Tan'ya grit her teeth and pushed it back up as hard as she could, forgetting about any kind of control at all. After a moment of exertion there was a scream of straining metal and finally a pop as the pistons burst and the weight lessened as oily fluids oozed out of the joints in the doorframe. Slowly, the door started to rise inch by painful inch as suddenly the Force yelled a warning out at Tan'ya.
One of the bridge crew had gotten down on his belly, and was pointing his side arm at Tan'ya beneath the gap in the door. If Tan'ya dropped the door they'd be sealed out and swarmed by droids, but if she stayed where she was she might be shot!
The Neimoidian seeing his target was a child hesitated, for just a moment too long.
The guard at the mouth of the shaft saved Tan'ya, scrambling out into the corridor to block any blaster shots and opening fire on the prone Nemoidian with his deck sweeper. At that distance, the energy particles had dispersed enough that they didn't knock him out, but it frightened him enough that he jerked back with a curse and ducked away out of sight.
More and more of Tan'ya's guards filled the corridor leading up to a bridge, when they all heard the whine of machinery coming to life. Behind them a piece of wall folded down below the deck, and a rack of droids was revealed. Tan'ya seized the lowering wall with the Force as well, and wrenched it back up, blocking off the rack of battle droids. She was so careless as she did that she accidentally crumpled the metal, causing it to bend and fold out of shape. Inside the compartment there was the pounding of metal on metal as the droids started to try and force their way out.
With her attention divided, the door to the bridge started to lower again and Tan'ya focused on it, forcing it back up. Finally, she was able to get the door up to head height, and crumpled the piece of frame next to it to pinch it in place.
Finally Tan'ya dropped her arms. "Get your men onto the bridge!" Tan'ya said to Seith. "Before they set up a chokepoint, hurry!"
Seith probably already intended to do that, and he and his men charged into the bridge. The first man through the door was riddled with flashing red blaster bolts, and dropped to the floor in an instant. The man behind threw himself through the gap, firing wildly with his stunner, missing but making enough room for someone to get in behind him. More and more of Tan'ya's guards packed through the gap, one or two of them getting hit, but in the confines of the bridge no one had any real cover, and the deck sweeper's were easier to hit with.
In the end they took the bridge with just three casualties. One dead and two wounded. The battle droids from the rest of the ship were converging on the bridge as Tan'ya inserted the code cylinder into the command console and shut them off.
With that done, Tan'ya then sent a message to the engineers, demanding their surrender and threatening them with the droids if they didn't comply. There was a small delay, before finally the bewildered engineers laid down their arms and surrendered.
At last with all three ships secured, the prisoners were transported down to the tarmac where they were taken away to be held in jail. The last Neimoidian to be removed from the ship was Sugrath, who seemed hopelessly despondent as he was packed into the back of a speeder, his gaze full of disbelief as he locked eyes with Tan'ya and was driven away.
Tan'ya sympathized. She knew how crippling it was to be stuck under the thumb of incompetent leadership. She remembered that feeling of frustrated helplessness when the battle was lost before it even started because of poor decisions further up the chain.
Finally, her remaining House Guards gathered back together on the tarmac in front of her, the injured and the dead having been taken to the city hospital and the morgue. The man slain turned out to be the Serenoan who'd shared his stainer with Tan'ya on the drive in. His name was Timerick of Tafo. Only a Corporal and he had proven himself brave beyond belief to charge through the open door like that, but someone had to go first in such a situation. No doubt he had known he was certain to die.
"Your sacrifice is not in vain." Tan'ya murmured, feeling solemn. This was the first man under her command to die in a long time. From her breast pocket, she took out the piece of stainer wrapped in her handkerchief and held it in her hand as she turned to face her men. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.
At the sight of her with the stainer, one of the Serenoans cried out, "Victory is Serenno!"
"Victory for the Princess!" Another voice took up the cry. "For the Rider Count!"
"Tan'ya the Countess!"
Someone else took up the cry. "Tan'ya the Countess! Tan'ya of Serenno!"
All the Serennoans started cheering, and Colonel Seith even seemed to smile at the moment. Amidst all the cheering, Tan'ya heard people shouting their own names and the names of their villages. She even heard one of the Coruscanti guards get caught up in the moment and give a traditional war cry of, "For the Republic!" Though only other Coruscanti took it up.
After a moment Tan'ya held out her hand to signal silence, and slowly they all fell quiet, waiting for what she had to say. "Timerick of Tafo." She said softly, and put the stainer in her mouth. It tasted slightly of liquorice as she chewed on it, and spread it across her gums and teeth. "Among the first Serenoan's to taste victory in battle for generations."
"Timerick of Tafo." Another man repeated.
"Victory for Tafo."
"Victory for Tafo." The words were echoed through the assembled.
Now they had all three ships. Tan'ya smiled, bitterly as she thought of how much more smoothly that operation could have gone if they just had a little more time to plan and prepare. Corporal Timerick would be here to share victory with them.
When her Father arrived on Serenno, Tan'ya would finally be able to ask him what they needed these damned ships for anyway.