Project Boussh: Have Commandos, Will Travel
by "Prophet" Kristy

Kristy's eyes were glued to the viewport.  The _Pulsar Skate_ had just
cleared Terra's atmosphere en route to the Imperial Star Destroyer
_Admonitor_, and the whole of the planet was stretched out below them. 
"A magnificent blue marble," just as that scientist on _seaQuest_ had
said.  She never thought she'd get out here except in her dreams.  To
see her home planet from space like this was breathtakingly incredible. 
She didn't understand how Mirax could pay attention to flying the ship
with this panorama to distract her ... but then, this was all old hat
to _her_.

Luckily, the excitement of actually being in space (she almost wished
there wasn't artificial gravity, just to experience zero-g), and being
in the cockpit with one of her idols from the GFFA, was distracting her
somewhat from thoughts of the mission to come.  If she let herself think
about it enough, she'd freak out too much to go through with it.

"And whose insane idea was it for us to assault a freakin' Star
Destroyer, anyway?" Kristy's glared out the window at Sci's _Gaia_.

"You _want_ Thrawn in orbit up there?" Mirax muttered.

It was a rhetorical question anyway, so Kristy didn't say anything.  She
just turned back to the window and her alternate marveling and worrying.

That was the worst part, she decided.  Worrying.  Not just about
herself, but more about everyone else.  That had been behind her
dressing-down of the two Joshes; not any ingrained bitchiness (though
she definitely had some of that), but rather that they'd both scared the
Sith out of her.  She was already worrying constantly about the safety
of everyone in her team, and had been since Quiara had disappeared.  She
didn't need any boys making it worse by idiotically risking themselves.

(Kristy had to admit, she was also miffed with Josh Cochran for setting
the oil spill on fire and exacerbating that disaster--an underlying
reason for her tirade over his pancakes--although, to be fair, with a
dogfight going on overhead that had probably been inevitable.)

Being already of the type who was overprotective of her friends--**mess
with my friends, you mess with me**--she certainly sympathized with
Wedge more than ever about the stresses of command.  And was amazed that
he hadn't worried his floofy hair completely gray.  At least he, Quiara,
and Vickie had somehow gotten safely off the _Admonitor_.  That made her
feel slightly better.  But for that monstrous ship, their mission would
be accomplished.

"There it is," Mirax said quietly.  Kristy turned away from the
magnificent view of Earth (she was too nervous to really see it anyway)
and felt icy Hoth take an orbit through her stomach.

Ahead of them, seemingly peaceful as it hung in the blackness of space,
was 1.6 kilometers of dominating white Imperial power.  Kristy wondered
if they could hear her thundering heartbeat through vacuum.

As if on cue, the sensor board--which till now had been dominated by a
comforting swarm of blue dots representing the joint Terran/New Republic
forces--lit up with an uncountable cloud of red.  "Go back to the cargo
bay and make sure everyone's ready for some maneuvering."

Kristy nervously checked her blaster for the millionth time before
nodding and heading aft, where the Katarn Commandoes waited.  She wondered
if Sci had known of her previous connections with Page's team when he'd
assigned them to her, or if he was Just That Good.  Until the Katarns had
arrived, she hadn't had the opportunity to meet any of _her_ main fanfic
characters, unlike Vickie, or Alison...

***

Morwen was grinning widely as she slid into a chair next to Kristy. 
"Reinforcements have arrived."

Kristy looked up from her pancakes curiously, and the Turkish woman
continued, "Wedge kept himself another sabaac card that wouldn't change
faces on us.  More forces from the New Republic: Page's Aces, Kapp Dendo
and Commando Team One, the Katarn Commandoes, Bel Iblis on the
_Peregrine_...

Kristy blinked, hard.  What was that she felt?  A glimmer of hope? 
"You're kidding."

"Nope.  Elscol, Sixtus, and Kapp just landed outside."

She wouldn't be able to say how she got there later, but suddenly Kristy
was on the airfield outside the castle, her long hair whipping in the
backwash of another troop transport that was just coming to land next to
a massive, armor-plated, green-and black shuttle that was already
there.  This troop transport was largely unmarked but for the silhouette
of a sleek, leaping creature with a long tail and wicked-looking teeth. 
Her heart caught in her throat.  It really was the Katarn Commandoes.

As people began to debark from the transport, Wes and Hobbie came over
with three familiar-looking people: a Devaronian with craggy, merry
features, a huge human with night-dark skin, and a short, red-haired
woman.  All five wore fairly sizeable grins.  Kapp moved forward to
shake hands with the soldiers coming out of the transport, dragging one
of them over to the knot of Terrans gathering on the landing strip. 
"Janson, Klivian, you two know Colonel Page, of course."

Page was unremarkably normal-looking; well, that was sort of the point. 
Brownish hair, brownish eyes, medium build, with a hidden strength of
character.  "You'd think I would have learned by now not to storm Star
Destroyers with such a small force, but someone told me General Antilles
was looking for the best," he said, chuckling, and he shook hands with
Wes and Hobbie.

Morwen, Kristy, and Rekla were introduced as "the locals," and Page
shook hands with them, too.  Kristy managed not to make a fool of
herself and say anything too stupid, murmuring something about following
his team's exploits with great admiration.  And after only a few minutes
of small talk, she managed to ask him the question that had been nagging
her ever since she'd learned that the Katarns were really coming to her
home planet.

"Colonel, you don't by any chance still have Korren Dova working for
you, do you?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Page winked at her, apparently not caring why she
was asking after one of his team technicians.  He turned to the group of
soldier who were unloading gear from the transport, and yelled, "Dova!"
in a tone that sounded for all the world like a stereotypical drill
sergeant.

**Ah, the parade-ground voice.  I've written about it, and yet only now
do I understand.**

A tall, lightly muscled man with sandy blond hair detached himself from
his comrades and jogged over to his CO, saluting casually.  "Colonel."

"Lieutenant Dova, meet Terra One, Kristy."

Kristy extended her hand feeling like an idiot, staring up into his
gold-flecked brown eyes, which were just as merry as she'd imagined them
so many times.  Instead of shaking her hand, though, he grinned
winningly and brought her hand up to kiss the back of it lightly.  "My
lady."

Morwen stifled a giggle behind her, but Kristy was too busy blushing
furiously to jab her friend with a well-deserved elbow.  Idiotically,
she said the first thing that came into her mind.  "I just found out
about Jenna; I'm so sorry, Korren."

Korren's face went blank, and he dropped her hand.  Out of the corner of
her eye, she could see Page glance over at them, mildly alarmed.  For a
few tense, silent moments she was afraid he might totally lose it like
she knew he had at Jenna's funeral and during the months afterward; but
he took a deep breath and gave her a slight, bittersweet smile.  "You
Terrans are a little behind, then.  Starr's been dead for years."  **Not
that I miss her any less,** Kristy almost heard him hide the extra words
behind his male pride.

"Yeah," she replied lamely.  **Um ...**  "I'm, uh, really pleased to
meet you, Lieutenant.  This may sound wierd, but I've written a lot
about you."

Korren nodded; apparently they'd already been told about the fanfic
stuff.  "Right."

***

"We're coming up on the _Admonitor_," Kristy announced without preamble
as the cargo-bay door cycled shut behind her.  The double-squad of
commandoes scattered in the cavernous room looked up at her briefly,
then most of them bent back over their blasters or whatever preparations
they were making.  Everyone looked strapped down and ready, so she moved
to a spot on the floor between Page and Korren and secured herself with
some crash webbing.

Seeing that she had nothing to keep her hands occupied, Korren handed
her a pack full of unidentifiable pieces of GFFA technology.  Kristy
riffled through it, then looked up at the commando helplessly.  "Um..."

"Whoops," Korren said, one side of his wide mouth quirking upward
briefly.  "Forgot about that.  Here, this goes here, this goes here, and
that snaps on like that."  He suited actions to words, quickly
assembling something else she couldn't identify.  "And don't touch the
green button."

"Bombs?"

"You got it."  Korren's grin widened.

" 'Pretty,' " Kristy quoted to herself, getting to work.  " 'What do we
blow up first?' "

"Hopefully, not anyone on our team," Page commented in reply.

"Hey, be nice to me; I'm the only frinking tech you've got," Korren
growled playfully.

Kristy blinked at that.  Hadn't there been _two_ Katarn techs at one
point?  "What about Mian Hoob?" she asked the tall, blonde commando
quietly.

His long face grew serious.  "You'll know how she had bad luck with
explosives?"

"Oh."  **Open mouth, insert foot.  Why do I _always_ do that?!**  "I'm
sorry."

They worked over the demolitions in taut silence for a few moments. 
Finally, Kristy couldn't resist any longer.  "Don't tell me you got
another artificial limb out of that?"

Korren grinned.  "Shattered elbow."  He flexed his left arm
demonstratively.  "Nothing that bacta can't fix."

Kristy nodded, but before she cold say anything more, she was making a
grab for the equipment she held to keep it from flying across the cargo
bay, as the _Skate_ made a sudden, lurching move and a loud bang sounded
outside.  Something crackled over the comm; she thought it might have
been Mirax's voice telling them to hang on back there, but it was
impossible to tell over the sounds of battle.  It was more than just
Hoth in Kristy's stomach, now, and she cast a scared look at Korren,
mouthing a curse.  The unfazed look of experience on his face somehow
made her feel better even as the ship shuddered again.

***

They were amazingly, incredibly quiet.

Sighting down the blaster pistol she held braced against the wall of the
corridor she was covering, Kristy marvelled for the millionth time at
the skill resident in Colonel Page's Commandoes.  Sure, she'd written
about them--**gonna have to call it something besides fan _fiction_,
now, I suppose**--but it wasn't like molecular biology students got a
lot of first-hand experience in infiltration ops.  Still, she could tell
these guys were _good_.  She certainly wouldn't have known the squad was
working behind her, had she not been part of their group.  She counted
herself supremely fortunate to have them on _her_ side.

And speaking of fanfic...working with the Katarns was _almost_ more
amazing than her previous (it seemed like months ago) assignment as
Terran liaison for Wedge and Tycho.  Those two were living legends, but
she'd just read about them.  These guys--most especially Korren
Dova--she'd actually received first-hand intelligence on.  Personally. 
She'd frequently had the feeling that her fanfic was actually about
_real_ events, silly as that notion was; and by the TAWG, it was true.

Though it was probably a safe bet that Wedge Antilles wasn't _really_ an
animist deity.

She was brought quickly out of her musing by a surge of adrenaline,
triggered by the sound of faint beeping coming up the corridor.  It
sounded like nothing so much as an astromech droid chirping with
excitement, though there was no way it could be that, right?  She
tightened her grip on her blaster and tried to make herself more
invisible.

Soon, the source of the sound came wheeling around a distant corridor. 
Sure enough, it _was_ an astromech droid.  In fact, from its markings,
it looked almost like--

"Whistler!" Page whispered in her ear, making her jump and bite the
inside of the cheek hard to keep from yelling.  Apparently the colonal
had heard the approaching sound as well and come to check it out, though
that didn't explain why he had to sneak up on a comrade like that.  She
cast him a venomous look, but he was already turned back to his team,
issuing commands in the barely audible whisper of field operatives.

"Seven, get up here; Two, take point.  Alpha, let's check it out."

Alpha was her, Page already being the "One" of the group, and she kept
her blaster half-trained on the Corran's green-and-white droid as it
rolled into their midst and Korren crouched to plug his data pad into
it.  A diminutive Rodian took up her spot on guard while the rest of
team continued at their own tasks.  Kristy wasn't so sure about the
intelligence of letting the little droid right into their midst like
this--what if he'd been captured by the Imperials and reprogrammed to
give them away?  But Page probably knew what he was doing.

"Spaarti cylinders," Korren murmured, scanning the words on his datapad.

"Where?" Page hissed, astonished.

"Just ahead and one level down.  Whistler hooked into the ship's central
computer.  Pretty good bet that's where this Thrawn's been getting a lot
of his troops," the tech commanted, glancing up at his commander.

"No takers," Page commented, pressing his lips together as he thought
hard.  "Okay, they're on our way anyway, and no good can come of them."  

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kristy asked.

Page nodded, his face deadly serious.  "I've had standing orders from
High Command for years now to take out any cloning facilities I might
encounter as long as my primary mission isn't endangered."  He looked
around.  "Katarns, new plan.  We're still looking for our people up
here, but we've come across a target of opportunity.  Seven will
distribute demolitions to Two through Five.  When we make it to the
cloning cylinders, you know what to do.  I want the rest of you to
remain on station on this level.  Stay out of sight, keep your eyes and
ears open.  Look for signs of our people and be ready to cover our exit
at this point."

As the Katarn Commandoes got ready to move out, Korren had a smile on
his face.  They were finally going to do what he liked best: blowing
shit up.