What a nightmare.
The war effort had been going well against the Alliance. But it had come at a cost. With most of them on the frontlines, there weren't many on the homefront. All the critters that had been driven out so diligently, had crept back into Enclave territory. They were pulled back to deal with it. Gailen suspected the Guildmaster had a hefty say in that. Kranak wouldn't have yielded otherwise. Not with the momentum they had.
But that wasn't what weighed so heavily on the Keldau.
What had happened on Kiffu all those months ago had chipped away at his usual level head. Yael had come back, crippled by a man who Gail now hated with all of his being - the spawn of the man responsible for the fall of Mandalore.
Casualties happen in battle - it was an integral part of it. Gailen had made his peace with it long ago and accepted it as a daily. But when it touched your heart, it was different. Something inside his girl had snapped and for that, the child of one of the most ancient of Clans in existence would never stop until that Jetii no longer breathed.
Whenever he was home, he'd devote his time to Yael. It tore him apart to see her like that, but they made it work. Even went to Zeltros together with the others to take a breather from death and destruction. Had fun, despite the wheelchair.
But even those small pockets of happiness didn't last.
He had been on Lyran, rooting out some more scumbags, when it had happened. He had known that she was on Kamino to see if the doctors there could get her to walk again. But when he got home after a hard campaign against some mercs, he learned from her father that she had fallen into a coma while she was there.
The news shattered his world. When he was not wearing out the threshold of the hospital wing on Kamino to see for himself if she had woken up, he was in the tavern back home. When he wasn't there, he was giving new meaning to the ruthlessness of Clan Keldau on the battlefield. Every petty criminal or minor Sith hiding out in the territory, carried the face of the man that had caused all of this. It did something to your being, watching your loved ones suffer daily and there's nothing you can do about it. You could be the Galaxy's best warrior or hold all the power, but when something you can't fight destroyed all you hold dear, all that power and strength gets stripped away.
You become nothing.
News this time came from one of his Karjr buddies that had recently returned from Tatooine. Yael was there? How? Confusion...questions wracked him apart. If her father had known about the discharge, he would have told Gailen. Their initial meeting had been rocky at best. The Keldau knew he had a reputation, so the old Karjr definitely knew that too and didn't let him forget it. But, somehow, with all the turmoil surrounding the one they both loved, they found trust in one another and even friendship in a way. Gailen couldn't fathom why neither of them knew that she had woken up and had been discharged.
He needed answers, at least.
Mouse had never flown so fast before to reach the desert planet, only for them to be too late. The hangar attendant at the spaceport told them that she had just left with some others on their way to Mandalore.
The basilisk's hyperdrive once again strained at the seams to reach them before they reach their destination.
://: I'm getting a reading for a ship carrying a Concordian code. Could this be them? Want me to drop into their tail? ://: asked Mouse after a while.
Gailen almost gave the word to just drop out like a bat out of Haran, but reined himself in just in time. No use doing something stupid and getting everyone killed unnecessarily.
"Wait, make contact with them first." he said in resignation.
Mouse did as he asked and a few seconds later a communication line was open. Gailen took a deep breath to steady himself.
<Su cuy'gar, Vod. Alor'ad Gailen Keldau, seeking permission to dock with a basilisk starship. I wish to speak to one of your passengers.> he said through the comms. He did feel the need to clarify one detail, however.
<I come in peace.>