Project Boussh: Heavy Cavalry
by Policrat'

"Anyone we know?" Hobbie Klivian asked, as the sound of high-powerd
repulsors echoed across the bright Pacific sky.

"Probably," Wes Janson shrugged, glancing round. "Looks like they've scared
the natives, though."

It was Rekla, running down the beach, afraid and excited all at once.

"I think you'd better come see this," he yelled, panting for breath. "I
think it's trouble. At the airfield."

They followed him back in time to see a green-and-black shuttle, massively
armoured and mounting wicked-looking weapons spars either side of its
whale-backed hull, touch down on the landing strip.

In front of it, a nervous squad of Mendellian soldiers formed a thin, ragged
line across the runway, pointing their rifles and blaster carbines at the
ship. They might as well have been waving spears at it, and they looked as
if they knew it.

When he caught sight of the two New Republic officers, the sergeant in
charge almost fainted with relief.

"We'll handle this," Wes told him, with a sympathetic smile. "The angry iron
monster is with us. You can go."

The sergeant didn't need to be told twice. His men didn't need to be told at
all.

"Easy," Hobbie called after them, suppressing a grin. "Not all at once. And
watch your feet, please."

There was no genteel hydraulic hiss to warn that the boarding-ramp was about
to be dropped, just a series of mechanical clicks, and then the two-ton slab
of armour plate thundered down.

Three figures walked out of the belly of the beast, all smiling. In the
middle came a lithe, red-haired woman in combat fatigues and lightweight
armour, with no rank-badges or unit-insignia. The two men who stood either
side of her both wore heavily-modified Imperial armour, and both had massive
rifles slung over their shoulders. Both even sported neat beards. They could
almost have been twins, but one of them was human, the other a red-skinned,
horned Devaronian.

"Rekla," Wes explained. "Meet Elscol, Sixtus and Kapp. They destroy things
for the New Republic. Like the Wraiths, only without the tact and subtlety."

"Ah." Relka laughed. "So they are very like you, then?"

But Wes' reply was drowned out by the soldiers' friendly roar of greeting.

***

"Sorry, guys," Hobbie said, after all the rounds of laughing and hugging and
shaking hands were done. "You missed the party. You'd have liked it, too.
Lots of noise."

Sixtus Quinn and Kapp Dendo answered with matching, malicious grins.

"That was just the warm-up," the Devaronian said. "Major, sir."

"They've been practicing boarding-actions all the way in from Garqui."
Elscol Loro explained. "We're here to get the General back."

"An infantry attack on a Star Destroyer?" Wes asked, looking rueful.
"Hobbie, why did we never think of that?"