Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

Despite an initial burst of excitement for finally having a proper target for a metal heist, Sheora insisted that this target was not time-sensitive. I couldn't help but chuckle and roll my eyes at that admittance, since not too long ago, her boss had tried to convince me that I needed to stay close by, just in case we needed to move fast.

Sheora didn't have too much information on our target, beyond the initial reveal that it was going to be some sort of Imperial industrial heist. While I knew the Rebellion would pick a proper target, I was glad to hear that we would be attacking an Imperial site.

Still, we had some time, so after contacting the rest of my team, I reached out to our away group, which ended up with me linked to Captain Irsee and Lieutenant Rider through the holonet. Our conversation was short but effective, as they were confident they had identified the planet that was the pirate's next target, and that they were lying in wait for them to attack. Once they had given me a proper update, I updated them, explaining that my team, as well as the Loyal Hound and the Mandalorians, would be going on this heist mission.

We had one whole night on Omega Station to decompress and get a full night's rest before waking up early and preparing for our next mission. My team, as usual, made themselves at home on the Talos Chariot, while Corvak and his eleven Mandalorian warriors claimed the bunks on the Lucky Hound.

On top of that, we also decided to go a little heavy on the loadout, running on the idea that it was easier to lighten our load than it was to suddenly acquire stuff we might need. On top of the usual contingent of B2 Super Battle Droids, both ships took another fifteen. We also gathered twenty Commando droids, led by Boxi.

Tatnia and I discussed for a while whether we should allow Miru to come with us. Her expertise and genius had more than once made the difference on asset acquisition missions, but I didn't want her anywhere near open combat. I already felt guilty for dragging her through Nar Shaddaa our first time around. Eventually, we decided to leave her behind since neither of us wanted to put her at risk, no matter what benefit bring her might have.

Eventually, we were packed and ready to go, with our crews running through our final checks and preparing to leave. While fueling up the ships, Pola came rushing into the hangar bay. He was pushing a hovercart, loaded down a familiar-looking crate.

"I am so glad I caught you!" he said, visibly sagging in relief, so much so that I was worried he was about to collapse. "I finished it!"

He quickly pushed the cargo lifter across the rest of the hangar, meeting us about halfway with an excited look on his face. As Ahsoka and I got close, he walked around and opened up the crate, revealing Ahsoka's new armor. She gasped and knelt down, running he hand over the first piece, the chest plate. She looked up at Pola, who nodded encouragingly before carefully taking the chest armor out and turning it over in her hands.

From what I could see, it did have a few extra bits of plating than the original had, but other than that, it looked nearly identical to the original piece. I also knew that Ahsoka had decided to leave off the extra robes, happily foregoing that bit of tradition.

"This is incredibly Pola," She admitted, looking at the Armorer with a large smile. "How did you finish so fast?"

"Working with other people has drastically improved my workflow," He explained. "It was hard getting used to delegating tasks, but once I did, everything got much smoother. Plus, I stayed up all night to make sure."

We spent a few minutes discussing the new aspects of her armor, Pola explaining that while the beskar made it highly resilient, it was still much more in line with agility versus durability, something she should keep in mind when she was in combat. Other than that, it had the same abilities and limitations as the standard Skyforged armor, at least when paired with her custom helmet.

"Pola, thank you for rushing this through," I said, patting his shoulder. "I feel a lot better knowing she had proper armor on when we fight."

"Of course, Boss," he said with a smile. "I'm happy to help!"

Ahsoka carefully repacked her armor, and after a final round of goodbyes, the crew finally climbed into their ships. Not long after that, we left the station behind. After exchanging security codes with the Huntress, which was orbiting around the station, we made the jump to lightspeed, our heading set for Alpha Base.

The trip was blessedly short, as the team was eager to get to work. Our access to beskar had become a rather important aspect of the Skyforged. Currently, all of our ground teams were in full armor, but there was a chunk of our flight crew members who were not wearing our beskar uniforms. On top of that, if we wanted to expand further, which would hopefully happen soon, we would need even more.

I was beginning to realize that, even if this mission went well and we secured a significant amount of precious metals, I would need to start looking for more almost immediately, at least if I wanted to keep my people protected as we grew.

When we arrived at Alpha base, the orbit around the planet was filled with a dozen ships, ranging from full-scale capital ships to lower-scale corvettes. As we approached and passed through the security "checkpoint," I could also see that there were two separate groups, with one leaning towards the heavier firepower and the other with smaller, faster crafts.

We were directed to the outer landing areas, and as we had before, as we exited our ships, we were met by a small utility speeder for transport. They seemed surprised when Corvak and a pair of his warriors exited the IPV and followed us to the speeder. Luckily, there was just enough room for all six, and my team had left their armor behind.

As all six of us, three Mandalorians, Tatnia, Ahsoka, and myself, settled onto the speeder, Corvak turned to me.

"They were surprised," He pointed out. "Did you not warn them we would be here?"

"We work with them, not for them," I responded with a shrug. "This is a joint mission between the Rebellion and the Skyforged. You and your people fall under that umbrella, at least for now, so there is nothing to explain."

"He wants to see them freaking out," Tatnia added.

"So far, the Skyforged has a reputation for achieving unlikely things, with very little prompting," I explained, giving Tatnia a half-hearted glare. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to hammer that home."

"...Working with you is going to be… interesting, isn't it?" He asked.

"But never boring," I said, slapping his pauldron. "Never boring."

"I feel as if I should have realized this sooner."

"Can you really say it's a bad thing?" I pointed out, giving a half salute to the guards at the side entrance of the bunker as we passed. "It's never boring, we are kicking ass, making money, and in the grand scheme of things, we are actually doing good for the galaxy. Hard to beat that."

Corvak nodded, not disagreeing with my statement but clearly not agreeing with me either. That wasn't altogether surprising, considering that Mandalorians weren't exactly known for their charitable efforts. I had discussed the "ground floor" plan of sticking to the Rebellion with him, and that was the idea he really seemed to appreciate. He wasn't interested in being a freedom fighter, but war profiteering for credits and power? That was practically the great Mandalorian pastime.

It didn't take long for us to make it to the meeting room, a large rectangular table surrounded by chairs, all around a central holoprojector. The projector itself seemed to be in a lowered, out-of-the-way position at the moment. As we entered, I could see that General Draven, General Syndulla, and several people I didn't recognize, as well as…

"Han, Chewbacca, good to see you again," I said, reaching out to shake both of their hands. "They rope you into this?"

"Well… I have a certain amount of experience with things like this," he pointed out, seemingly startled by being greeted first. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Corvack Syr, Leader of Clan Syr," I explained, gesturing to the warrior. "We recently got tangled up on a job, and we ended up working together in the end. I invited them along. Before anyone asks, I'll be paying them out of my pocket, so there's no reason to worry."

"You brought mercenaries here?" Draven asked accusingly, standing up and preventing me from greeting anyone else. "Are you out of your mind? You've jeopardized the security of the entire base!"

"They have absolutely no idea where they are, General Draven," I assured him. "The crew of the Loyal Hound was instructed to keep the hyperspace coordinates hidden, and several security droids were on staff to prevent any slicing or interference with ship systems. Which was ultimately pointless because they never even tried to access the bridge or do anything nefarious at all."

"That-"

"General, we have allowed Skyforged access to this base because we trust them," General Syndulla pointed out. "They helped us secure it, and since then, we haven't questioned any of their recruitments. It makes no sense to start now."

"Thank you," I said, nodding towards the general. "I don't think anyone is crazy enough to doubt the effectiveness of Mandalorian warriors, they will be a significant help in whatever scenario you've managed to parse out. And I trust them enough to bring them here, betting our continued relationship on them not screwing us over."

After a moment, General Draven sat down, not exactly looking happy about it. The table was silent for a long, awkward stretch until I eventually rolled my eyes.

"So what is our target?" I asked, looking between General Syndulla and Draven. "Unless something has gone wrong, and we don't have one anymore?"

General Syndulla turned slightly to look at her fellow Rebel leader, the human man nodding and standing, the room going somewhat darker as the holoprojector rose into position.

"Our target is a central vault location for an industrial planet responsible for producing a variety of parts for the Imperial Navy," General Draven explained, tapping at the computer in front of him, the holoprojector lighting up. "The planet's name is Forisa, and it currently falls under the domain of a Moff Dowri, a career politician and Coruscant native who is currently in charge of a small but lucrative sector of the Mid Rim."

The holoprojector first showed off a projection of Forisa, a relatively barren planet that reminded me of the world with the first CIS base we conquered but with a slightly better atmosphere. Beside that, an image of Moff Dowri appeared, showing a smooth-shaven man, including the top of his head. He looked like the kind of man who shaved not because he was balding or because he thought it looked good, but rather because having a smooth head was more efficient and cleaner.

"Now, as I said, the target is a central vault, which is used to hold and distribute the more valuable materials across the planet," Draven explained, the projection now showing a hexagonal building, though the shot is taken from far away. "The vault is refilled bi-weekly, and since we have a pretty firm grasp on what the planet is producing and in what amounts, we can safely predict just how much metal should be in this vault. This is what we will be targeting."

The projection shifted to a list, a dozen metals appearing with amounts beside each. As each one was put on display, I had to fight to keep my jaw from dropping. Just the first two metals alone were enough to make the trip worth it, but with all of them combined… Even with us only getting sixty percent, we would be getting significantly more than what we secured from our first heist.

"This target was chosen for a handful of reasons, in no small part is because Moff Dowri has a reputation as a man willing to take bribes and cut corners," General Draven explained. "On paper, his sector is doing well, but our agents have observed significant cutbacks on fleet movements and sizes, as well as a considerable delay in action response times."

The projector shifted again, this time showing off a list of ships, connected with names and even a brief history for some of them.

"Our second reason is the defense fleet above the world. While the planet is too important to have no fleet, it has shrunk in size significantly over the last four years. Three ships have been grounded and have not returned to service, either to cut costs or to hide other issues." As he talked, three ships displayed red exes over them, showing which ships weren't expected to be part of the fleet. "Whatever the reason, we can expect a significantly smaller naval threat than we would have otherwise. Finally, we have the third and potentially most important aspect of this mission and the reason why this target was ultimately chosen."

The projection shifted, displaying some sort of large comms tower near the outer perimeter of the city. It wasn't anything special, and ultimately, it reminded me of the tower Ezra and Sabine were living out of when we picked them up for the whole lightsaber adventure.

"This Comms tower 45-83B, and either through neglect or direct greed, it is the keystone of the planet's entire off-planet communication system. Destroying this tower would make it impossible for leadership on the ground to communicate with the defense fleet, should the fleet leave a certain perimeter around the planet."

The holoprojector went dark, bringing everyone's focus back directly to Draven. He stood there with his hands behind his back, easily accepting the attention.

"The assault consists of three parts. First is a hit-and-run attack on the defense fleet. Their primary goal is to outrun and distract them, leading them on a wild chase away from the planet. We have several ideas to make this safer and run up the clock, which we can discuss later," Draven said, nodding to some of the people I didn't recognize. "Second, a small strike force will attack Comms tower 45-83B, disabling it to prevent any further communications from reaching the defense fleet, keeping them from returning. Third and finally, a larger strike force would attack the vault directly, cracking it open and raiding its storage before loading up and heading home."