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nonelikemesinceThe strike team was still all accounted for when Anakin came to again -- Ganner, somewhere else on the ship, and the rest of them in the hold. Bound again, but alive, much to his relief.
The voxyn, he noted, was not, and -- he wouldn't miss the acid saliva or the brain-scrambling screams, but that hadn't been part of the plan. Neither was whatever mood had gotten into Jacen this time; Anakin could pick up on it, but more obviously his brother avoided so much as looking at him.
But that was all right, and he could get things back on track -- assuming the combat droids were still attached to the hull of the ship. Because it would go according to plan from here on out.
"Activate escape," Anakin muttered into the comm chip implanted beneath his skin. Were the droids still there? They'd find out, and in the interminable minutes of waiting he reviewed the rest of the mission plan, point by point the way they'd drilled with the droids.
And they did -- after blowing a hole in the hull with explosives and taking out the ship's crew, bringing with them the equipment pod containing their weapons and medical supplies.
They were fifteen seconds ahead of schedule according to 2-1S; Anakin listened to the rest of the droid's report while Tekli tended to his injuries. The crew coma-gassed, no life signs detected from the three other voxyn on board. Good. That was good. As soon as everyone's injuries had been seen to and they were geared up, they split into assault and support teams. He could sense some uneasiness from Jacen once the battle-meld was reestablished, but he couldn't really afford to distract himself wondering about it. Time to find Ganner and take control of the ship.
***
It went pretty smoothly at first: Anakin's assault team only ran into a single warrior, taken care of by the Hara sisters so quickly they didn't even have time for one of their incomprehensible Barabel jokes. When 2-1S's readings alerted them to a surviving voxyn and, on the deck below them, the presence of an ambush party that had ysalamiri, it started to go downhill.
Alema was in favor of taking out their would-be attackers before going after Ganner, and Anakin agreed. Jacen, predictably, looked incredibly disappointed in his brother for the decision.
"Anakin can't keep sacrificing others to make his plans work," he insisted. "That way lies the dark side."
Anakin didn't look up from the hole he was cutting in the floor. "Sacrificing others? What are you talking about?"
"You told Ulaha to attack the voxyn," Jacen answered, "and now you're abandoning Ganner."
Okay, that hurt. It explained what had happened while he was unconscious, and all the resentment he'd been picking up from Jacen since. "How can you think that?" Anakin knew he and Jacen had their differences, philosophical and otherwise, but for Jacen to doubt him that badly, and do it in front of the rest of the team? "Ulaha disobeyed orders. I wanted her to tell Duman Yaght the name of the base. I did not say to attack!"
It was even worse when Jacen's genuine shock rippled through the meld and he stammered, "Anakin, I'm sorry! When Ulaha attacked, I thought . . . I just assumed --"
"I know what you assumed," Anakin bit out. It always came down to this, didn't it? Someone just assuming he was going to live up to the worst parts of his name, and sacrifice everything for the sake of a goal? "Get away from me. You're holding things up."
They were two minutes and eleven seconds ahead of schedule by the time the ambush party was disposed of, and Jaina's team had taken care of one of the surviving voxyn, which was great, except that Anakin was pretty sure he had a cracked rib from the thud bug that caught him in the chest during the fight. Plus, the voxyn they'd encountered (great, despite the 0.8% probability of one of them surviving the thermal detonator attack, at least two had) managed to escape into the ship's ducts.
But they pulled off their main objectives: eliminating Duman Yaght, recovering Ganner, and securing the bridge, so -- he'd count that as a win. They didn't really have a choice about lowering their standards for success by now.
[OOC: NFI/NFB/OOC-okay/etc., still majorly adapted/condensed from Star by Star by Troy Denning, still TBC. Some minor descriptions of violence beneath the cut, but that's about the worst of it.]
The voxyn, he noted, was not, and -- he wouldn't miss the acid saliva or the brain-scrambling screams, but that hadn't been part of the plan. Neither was whatever mood had gotten into Jacen this time; Anakin could pick up on it, but more obviously his brother avoided so much as looking at him.
But that was all right, and he could get things back on track -- assuming the combat droids were still attached to the hull of the ship. Because it would go according to plan from here on out.
"Activate escape," Anakin muttered into the comm chip implanted beneath his skin. Were the droids still there? They'd find out, and in the interminable minutes of waiting he reviewed the rest of the mission plan, point by point the way they'd drilled with the droids.
And they did -- after blowing a hole in the hull with explosives and taking out the ship's crew, bringing with them the equipment pod containing their weapons and medical supplies.
They were fifteen seconds ahead of schedule according to 2-1S; Anakin listened to the rest of the droid's report while Tekli tended to his injuries. The crew coma-gassed, no life signs detected from the three other voxyn on board. Good. That was good. As soon as everyone's injuries had been seen to and they were geared up, they split into assault and support teams. He could sense some uneasiness from Jacen once the battle-meld was reestablished, but he couldn't really afford to distract himself wondering about it. Time to find Ganner and take control of the ship.
***
It went pretty smoothly at first: Anakin's assault team only ran into a single warrior, taken care of by the Hara sisters so quickly they didn't even have time for one of their incomprehensible Barabel jokes. When 2-1S's readings alerted them to a surviving voxyn and, on the deck below them, the presence of an ambush party that had ysalamiri, it started to go downhill.
Alema was in favor of taking out their would-be attackers before going after Ganner, and Anakin agreed. Jacen, predictably, looked incredibly disappointed in his brother for the decision.
"Anakin can't keep sacrificing others to make his plans work," he insisted. "That way lies the dark side."
Anakin didn't look up from the hole he was cutting in the floor. "Sacrificing others? What are you talking about?"
"You told Ulaha to attack the voxyn," Jacen answered, "and now you're abandoning Ganner."
Okay, that hurt. It explained what had happened while he was unconscious, and all the resentment he'd been picking up from Jacen since. "How can you think that?" Anakin knew he and Jacen had their differences, philosophical and otherwise, but for Jacen to doubt him that badly, and do it in front of the rest of the team? "Ulaha disobeyed orders. I wanted her to tell Duman Yaght the name of the base. I did not say to attack!"
It was even worse when Jacen's genuine shock rippled through the meld and he stammered, "Anakin, I'm sorry! When Ulaha attacked, I thought . . . I just assumed --"
"I know what you assumed," Anakin bit out. It always came down to this, didn't it? Someone just assuming he was going to live up to the worst parts of his name, and sacrifice everything for the sake of a goal? "Get away from me. You're holding things up."
They were two minutes and eleven seconds ahead of schedule by the time the ambush party was disposed of, and Jaina's team had taken care of one of the surviving voxyn, which was great, except that Anakin was pretty sure he had a cracked rib from the thud bug that caught him in the chest during the fight. Plus, the voxyn they'd encountered (great, despite the 0.8% probability of one of them surviving the thermal detonator attack, at least two had) managed to escape into the ship's ducts.
But they pulled off their main objectives: eliminating Duman Yaght, recovering Ganner, and securing the bridge, so -- he'd count that as a win. They didn't really have a choice about lowering their standards for success by now.
[OOC: NFI/NFB/OOC-okay/etc., still majorly adapted/condensed from Star by Star by Troy Denning, still TBC. Some minor descriptions of violence beneath the cut, but that's about the worst of it.]
