Gavik checked his blaster rifle one more time. As with all his previous checks, it was fine. Power pack fully charged, all components in perfect shape, two spare power packs stowed in his combat harness. Still, studying the state of his weapon gave him a certain peace of mind.
This mission promised to be a tough one. These treeless scurriers had taken the honourable one prisoner. It made Gavik want to rend them limb from limb, to take their bones and grind them into dust, to feed their souls to the spirits of his ancestors. But Nick had said they weren't allowed to do that, as much as they might want to. Apparently these scurriers might have useful information, and that meant taking them alive. So they had to avoid unnecessary enemy casualties, and avoid getting Josh hurt in the process. Not fun.
Eventually, Nick slowed the speeder to a crawl, and the commandos all bailed out, Tekar hefting the heavy fusion cutter they kept around for getting into places where they weren't exactly invited. As soon as they were all clear, Nick sped off, taking the speeder out in a wide circle around their target. Gavik and his troops moved quietly up the dune before them, until that target came into view.
It was a low hummock, with little to distinguish it from the dunes around it. The datapad in Gavik's hand, however, assured him that this was the camouflaged spacecraft Kristy had been directing them towards. He waved to his troops, instructing them to flatten themselves out just below the crest of the dune, while he waited for Nick's signal to start the operation. They complied without hesitation, although Gavik caught a few muttered gripes about the unwelcome combination of fur and sand.
As near as Gavik could tell, they were in the correct position, opposite the point where Kristy had observed Josh making his recent abortive escape attempt. Once Nick gave the signal, the commandos planned to exploit that fact to make themselves a new entrance. They didn't have long to wait. A shrill scream shattered the silence of the desert night, as Nick brought the speeder in at near-maximum velocity. Reddish blasts spat from the nose of the craft, causing ionising lightning to skitter across the surface of the camouflage net. Even at that speed, most of the ion blasts slammed into the hunkering starship at the same point, burning through and paralysing the vessel beneath.
As soon as Nick began his attack run, Gavik and Tekar rose, and charged down the face of the dune, ducking beneath the now useless camouflage and pulling their protective goggles down to cover their eyes. Sure enough, as Kristy had predicted, they were right next to the ship's main cargo hatch. After slapping the hatch release button with no effect, Tekar quickly powered up the fusion cutter, confident that the sensors indicating the hull breach would be a minor contributor to the cascade of alarms currently being relayed to the starship's occupants. Gavik kept watch, blaster rifle ready in one hand, stun grenade in the other. After all, it was possible that the people inside had noticed either their run down the dune, or else the effect Tekar was having on their cargo bay door.
Tekar's equipment made short work of the outer bulkhead. A properly armoured vessel would have held up longer, but this thing was little more than a souped up freighter. To properly distract anyone with the misfortune to be waiting for them, Gavik kept his stun grenade ready, prepared to lob it inside as soon as there proved to be reason to do so. The timing worked out well - just as Tekar set the fusion cutter aside, the remaining Ewok commandos arrived, and followed Gavik into the enemy starship.
As he opened the inner bulkhead of the airlock, stun grenade once again held ready, Gavik discovered the cargo bay he expected. What he hadn't expected was that it would be such a mess. One corner of the room showed scorch marks that looked as though they had come from a disruptor pistol. The stench of blood permeated the air, while a rather sorry looking corpse occupied one corner of the room. Obviously the remaining crew still had a bit of work to do in cleaning up the remnants of Josh's escape attempt.
Gavik held up a hand, waving his troops forward. He sniffed the air, trying to make out anything beyond the strong scent of death. He shook his head in frustration, and moved towards the door leading to the rest of the ship.
Then, all of a sudden, the pain stopped.
Before Josh could think this through, he was already pressing his ankles down on the straps that bound them, moving himself up to take a deep breath. How long had he been hanging there? Was it as little as an hour? As long as a day? And now, for whatever reason, the pain had stopped, and he was breathing clearly.
The wall shook slightly, as if a generator was turning itself on, and there was a muffled sound of shouting. Josh couldn't make out the words, if there were any, but there was a definite tinge of alarm to them. Then, a sound Josh was all too familiar with - the whine of blaster fire. Rather a lot of it. Hanging in the dark as he was, it was difficult to work out what direction the fire was coming from, but some of it seemed to be working its way closer.
The wall gave another shudder, accompanied this time by a hollow booming. Oh great, he thought hazily, Turbolasers. The blaster fire intensified, along with the shouting, until he could make out words. "The fuzzy Sithspawn" seemed to be an oft-repeated phrase, as well as what sounded like a roll-call of casualties.
Then, the door slid open, allowing much of the noise in. It was a battlefield out there, with someone screaming for their mother, shouted commands to seal hatches, panicked screams, and the ever-present blare of blaster fire. Josh frowned slightly, trying to figure out what was going on, when a figure ducked through the doorway, silhouetted briefly by a red flash from out in the corridor.
A blaster dug into the bottom of his chin, and a familiar voice said, "Don't move, indig. Looks like you'll be of some value after all." And then the voice chuckled.
Josh felt the bonds on his ankles loosen, dropping his legs parallel to the wall, then the restraints at each arm snapped open. Josh began to grin as he dropped to the floor. The blaster gives me info on where he is, and he can't see me... goodnight, Chuckles. He let himself fall a little further to assume a crouch, and was somewhat disappointed when his legs failed him utterly and he crashed to the floor, the muzzle of the blaster grazing his chin on the way down.
A hand grabbed the back of Josh's neck, and dragged him upright, Josh's arms feebly trying to fight the motion. "You're coming with me."
Gavik knelt beside Tekar, checking for any sign of life. He also tried to keep a wary eye on the corridor ahead of him. He'd taken out the enemy that got Tekar, but he still wasn't sure how many scurriers were left to account for. Looking down briefly, he brushed Tekar's eyes closed, wishing his friend a warm welcome from his ancestors. A scuffing behind brought him fully alert again, rising and spinning, blaster rifle coming to his shoulder, aimed and ready to fire.
At Josh.
The honourable one wasn't looking well. Gavik knew that in normal circumstances, the stocky, balding man holding the blaster to Josh's temple would have been flat on his back before getting within three feet of the Australian. These obviously weren't normal circumstances. It was clear that the only thing keeping Josh upright was the arm the man had wrapped around his throat.
<"Let him go!"> Gavik growled. The human with the blaster looked uncertain for a moment, then gestured threatengingly with the blaster against Josh's head.
"Drop the rifle, or your friend dies."
Gavik affected not to understand, growling in anger and frustration. Then his nose picked up a familiar scent, coming from the corridor behind him. He tightened his grip on the blaster, focusing his aim. Perhaps Nick could figure a way out of this.
"You can't win, Star. All your people are down. Let him go."
The man holding Josh, presumably Star, laughed bitterly. "Yeah, that'll work. How about you and your little furry bedmates get the hell off my ship before I blow your lover's brains out?"
"That threat'd be a hell of a lot more effective if your blaster was set on kill."
It was an obvious ploy. Star wasn't stupid. If his blaster hadn't been on kill, this conversation wouldn't have been taking place. That didn't stop his reflexive glance down at his weapon. A glance that meant, for a crucial second, he wasn't looking at Nick. Or Gavik.
Their shots sounded almost simultaneously, the stun blasts merging and hammering into Star and his hostage. Star slumped backwards, dragging Josh down on top of him. As Gavik hurried forward, he heard Nick mutter, "Made you look, you fucking bastard."
Reaching the fallen pair, Gavik quickly checked Josh's pulse and breathing, then turned to give Nick a quick thumbs up. The Australian nodded, then turned away, leaving his friend to the capable Ewok's field ministrations.
Gavik heard Nick pull out his commlink. "Kristy? We're clear. Looks like they weren't treating Josh too well, but once we get him back to Mendellia he should be OK. Let the others know."
The first thing he heard was the hiss of a hypodermic. After that, other sounds and sensations began to flood back, among them Nick's voice.
"Josh? You okay?"
Josh flickered his eyes open, and regarded Nick, who was crouching near him repacking a spray hypo into a medkit. He tried to speak, but found his throat too dry to speak, making croaking noises instead.
An Ewok shook Josh's shoulder, and he lolled his head away from Nick towards what turned out to be Gavik. The commando helpfully held a canteen to Josh's lips, and the prone Australian gratefully gulped it down.
"Are you all right?" repeated Nick. Josh closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then turned his face towards his friend.
"You shot me." Josh's voice was still a bit rough, and not a lot louder than a whisper.
"No, I shot Star."
"You bloody bastard. If I'd had time, I would've crapped myself. Prick."
Nick grinned, and clasped his friend's shoulder. "Good to have you back."