The Great Hunt (Tegaea) (Complete)

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

At long last the great revolution to liberate Kashyyyk would begin! Well, liberate it from one chieftain who admittedly was a treacherous prick, but then he was a politician, so that two more honourable and somewhat xenophobic chieftains could rule it. One wondered how they would react when the Republic, in the best spirit of manifest destiny, forced an unequal treaty on them.

However, Zardok had betrayed Tegaea and Siobhan. With this foolish act he had signed his own death warrant. The Omega crew quickly started arming the Wookiees with more modern weapons. Inevitably one of the Wookies played around with a light repeater and accidentally squeezed the trigger, sending a highly-powered laser bolt directly into a lodge and ripping a large, burning hole into the wood. That seemed to make a sufficient impression to give the Wookiees confidence in their new armaments, although Zardok's army still outnumbered them.

In his throneroom Zardok paced, eager to hear of victory and yet apprehensive. "Any word from our strike force?" he demanded from a Wookiee officer, who shook his head.

"I assure you, Great One, the off-worlders and the traitors must've perished. Our gift was more than adequate and if any of Taalbak's clan survive, they will beg for your clemency," his Muun adviser spoke up. He wore ornately embroidered robes and puffed on a thick cigarra.

"I will celebrate victory after I have seen their corpses!" Zardok snapped at him. It was indeed a reasonable policy not to assume your enemie were dead until you'd seen their bodies. Far too often holo-movie villains had concluded that "nobody could've survived that", after the heroes say seemingly fell to their deaths, only to unrealistically manage to hold on and return. "You will accelerate your deliveries of weapons and technology to us."

"Of course, Great One. But are certain concessions we must speak of. Some among my house want solid..."

The Wookiee cut him off with an angry grunt. "I've already given you all the concessions I am willing to part with. Never forget that I hold the power on Kashyyyk and I'm the only one who'd deal with you. Taalbak would roast and eat your kind alive over some petty slight of honour."

"I will do my utmost to convince my house, Great One. We all want a productive working relationship and a new Kashyyyk," the Muun said calmly with a thin, conniving smile. "Once those nuisances have been removed, I'll send survey teams down into the Shadowlands to assess the bounty."

In this moment a Wookiee scout rushed in, quickly making obeisance before his King. "Great Chieftain, Taalbak has betrayed you. His men are on the march, heading for our city. We've heard of a large explosion at their village. The gunship was destroyed," he shot the Muun an almost accusing look, as if he were responsible.

Zardok clenched his paws. "It is as I feared. He bites the hand I extended to him in friendship, like the Madclaw. Mobilise our warriors, we won't let them destroy Kashyyyk's future." He pondered this for a short moment. "Did any of your scouts see the off-worlders among them?"

"No, Great Chieftain. And their ship escaped us."

"Off-worlders know no courage, they let true warriors fight for them. They must've fled," one Wookiee officer threw in, blustering.

Zardok shook his head. "I smelt the blood on them when they stood in this hall. They will not scurry away into the stars. Muster the army, we will repel the invaders. We will not fail or submit before madclaws and aliens."

"Maybe we should parlay..."

"The time for that has passed and they wouldn't accept it. The longer we allow these Kinrath to roam our land, the more of our children the lizards steal. To war!"

As Zardok readied his forces, which no doubt also involved drawing back forces that should have been fighting the Trandoshans, the Omega ship was on its way, with Tegaea, Siobhan and Graz on board along with what the Omega crew and those few Wookiees from Graz' party that had survived the trek through the realm of shadows.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

While this cliche defying speech was going on, Tegaea was looking at a holomap of the area. it showed the route they had taken in their escape, and a potential route around the forests to come in from the far side.
"Siobhan, this is the plan," she stated, not asking for advice. "We're going to take the transport to this area, then go in by speeder. We only have two in the ship and they were only meant to be prototypes, but who cares. We'll go in while the main wookiee force comes in from here." She gestured to each direction.

"They key is that we try and get to Zardok as quickly and quietly as possible. he double crossed us and is the leader, therefore he dies."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Prototypes...what a way to test them. I like wild driviing." Siobhan shrugged, not looking particularly concerned and leaving the strategic matters to Tegaea. "You'll get his head," she said grimly when Tegaea mentioned Zardok. "In a fruit basket with blood oranges if I can find any." She still thought turning Zardok into a rug was a sound idea, there a good spot in Tegaea's special room where it would fit right in.

Regardless as the Wookiee army that had been quickly assembled by Taalback and his followers broke camp and headed towards the city of Zardok and was soon greeted by his warriors at the advance fortifications they had erected, Siobhan and Tegaea took their transport vessel around the vast forests of the Shadowlands. Sounds of battle could be heard further away, Zardok's men were using horns to alert the rest of their forces about the attack, flares were shot into the forest to light up enemy positions.

The ship landed on a platform and they boarded their skimmers. Miraculously, when Siobhan powered up the speeder and turned on the engines, the vehicle did not blow up, as it so often happened with prototypes according to certain holomovies. However, she then picked up on the sound of movement coming from the tree branches. She reached out with the Force and struck at them with a telekinetic blast, making birds flee and knocking several of them down. A Wookiee scout tumbled down along side them, landing on the platform. Evidently this happened to be a scout Zardok's men had sent out.

The Wookiee growled, clearly hurt by his unwelcome landing, and turned to run, firing his bowcaster as he moved and trying to reach for his comm. Siobhan fired five shots from her blaster pistol in quick succession, two hitting him in the arm before he could get a message off. The Wookiee howled when his comm was wrecked before he could send a message to Zardok, then charged towards the speeder, aiming to jump on it as he leapt. The skimmer narrowly dodged his first assault and swerved to the side, then when the Wookiee came at them with his claws he was suddenly pulled into the air and hurled down into the Shadowlands.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea for her part used her speeder to scout around, and using her infrared googles she discovered another scout hiding in the trees. Homing in she used the blaster cannon on the speeder to shoot that scout before he could get off a message either.
"Siobhan, Graz, we've got to move before they miss these guys."

Speeding through the woods they came upon the village, but they were early, and had to wait for the sounds of battle to begin from the far side, and for Graz to catch up. Alas, they were detected using some of the new fangled equipment, and Tegaea was almost hit by a bowcaster round before she dived aside and opened fire. This in turn alerted more of Zardok's troops to their presence. There was nothing for it, they had to dive right in....

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

At the gates to the town the battle was beginning in earnest. Zardok's forces were well-entrenched and had E-web emplacements and even a few grenade launchers, though ammunition for the latter seemed to be tight. The great wroshyr trees provided some cover for Taalbak's men, but the offensive took a great toll on them as they relentlessly pressed on and sought to engage Zardok's men. Taalbak's troops had been bolstered by the modern weaponry delivered to them by Omega. Moreover, they were fuelled by the righteous outrage at being betrayed by Zardok, something which would drive them on to fight and storm onward over the bodies of their comrades, but Zardok had been building an army intended to conquer the planet, even though his preparations were far from complete and not all of his forces had been mustered in time.

For her part, as the sounds of battle drew closer and the pained howls of Wookiees filled the air, Siobhan dove down into the fray on her speeder. As might be well-known, Siobhan was not the safest driver. Indeed, the very idea of traffic regulations seemed utterly alien to her, perhaps because she had never bothered to acquire a license. However, as it happened, her wild style of driving had its uses when it came to dodging the salvoes of bolts that were being fired and the grenades that were being tossed into her direction.

She fired at hostiles with the speeder's blaster cannon, a bit awkward when she was driving at top speed at the same time. Nonetheless she kept up a continuos salvoe salvoe aimed at Wookiees climbing up wroshyr trees, realising they were trying to get at her from the top. She yanked the gun around to blast a hole into one of the lodgings, setting it alight and bringing the wood plaiting down a Wookiee wielding a repeater, then peppered him with rounds until he fell.
As she raced the skimmer a large Wookiee leapt towards her from a high tree and landed on the vehicle, making it shake from the pressure, though she managed to yank it around before she crashed something. The Wookiee tried to steady himself and struck with claws and punches, trying to grab ahold of her head, while Siobhan held her sabre in a one-handed grip, slashing at him. The Wookiee howled when his right arm was struck and neatly cut off, then lunged and headbutted her, making Siobhan reel.

Her lightsabre fell out of her hands and incidentally fell upon the controls, wrecking havoc as the hot plasma burnt through, which neither of them seemed to notice at the moment. Meanwhile the blaster cannon kept firing on full auto, making hostiles seek cover. The Wookiee grabbed ahold of her throat and flexed his remaining arm, preparing to crush her windpipe. As she started to choke and felt the oxygen leave her, then she managed to reach her lightsabre with the Force and swing it as his leg, separating his foot of it. As the Wookiee stumbled the speeder shook from the pressure. Siobhan pressed on and slashed at him, then gave him a hard Force-reinforced punch that sent him tumbling off.

Trying to catch her breath she noticed the havoc that had been wrecked on the speeder's system, the vehicle was racing towards a tree. With the controls useless, she tried to slow its racing with the Force by stretching out and trying to get it to steer upon a bunch of hostile Wookiees. Then, as the vehicle shook at an increasingly fast fate under the laser salvoes that were peppering it, Siobhan leapt out of the vehicle just when a Wookiee aimed with an E-web took aim and the speeder was starting to get shorn in half under the fire. The speeder crashed into the Wookiee at top speed, impaling him on it before crashing into one of the buildings and so that his corpse was tossed around like a ragdoll, while half of the vehicle lay around a few metres away.

Siobhan lay there on the ground, temporarily stunned after just jumping out of a speederbike moving at top speed. Wookiees closed in on her as she lay there, then she jumped up and pulled back. With a tug from the Force, she activated the speeder's blaster cannon and rotated it, sending a hail of laser bolts towards them to cover. Two Wookiees were mowed down instantly before they blasted the cannon to smithereens, but the cacophony of laser bolts and howls just brought more Wookiees from Zardok's guard streaming towards them.

Siobhan spun her lightsabre in a fast flurry as she was assaulted with rounds, dodging and jumping when they became too many to reflect back to their shooters. When she finally found some breathing space after somersaulting into the air and evading a strike from a Wookiee wielding a large sword, she concentrated on the wrecked skimmer after landing on a tree branch. Reaching out with her powers and willing herself to concentrate amid the chaos around her, she grabbed at the wrecked vehicle and levitated. The two halves complied and she sent them towards the group of Wookiees standing guard at the entrance to the lodge, which had since been repaired. Bolts came sizzling her way and she winced when one whizzed past and grazed her, but she managed to keep focus and sent the now burning wreck hurling towards her enemies.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

The battle was ferocious, and Tegaea sort to help out Siobhan wherever she could, but her lover was just such a good distraction for the enemy! With this in mind, her and Graz had managed to sneak their bike around the outside of the battle, under the village, and come up just below the chieftain's longhouse. There were angry growls and barks from about them as wookiees gave orders.

Two of them against an entire room full of angry wookiees, including a chieftain who had sworn to kill them? Might be a bit of an ask, but Tegaea was always prepared to do what was necessary, and this time she was prepared. As well as her speeder's cannon she had grenades, her pistols and Graz had a very large repeating blaster.
She waited until it seemed a few wookiees had left the longhouse...hopefully to fight Siobhan...and then acted. The speeder bike's cannon fired through the floor, shredding the wood into fragments and blasting apart wookiees and aliens alike. It was on....

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Wookiees were tough opponents. Well, that was like saying fire was hot or Ewoks were cuddly, unless you were an Imperial and happened to the wear crappy, mass-produced stormtrooper armour. They were tough, strong and a had liking for riping their opponents' arm and beating them to death it. Or just crushing their throats.

And right now, quite a few of them seemed to find Siobhan rather appetising and came at her with large blades and bowcasters, despite the dead bodies that were already piling up and the howls of their comrades from the main gate, where by now a fierce melee had developed between the warriors of Zardok and Talbaak. This state of events forced Siobhan all the fancy lightsabre disciplines, whose names she in any case had never been able to remember, and fight free-form. That happened to be just the way she liked it.

A Wookiee struck at her with his blade and received a roundhouse kick to the face and then a death blow as she stabbed down. She slashed away blaster bolts coming for her head as if they were annoying insects, then stormed forward to thrust her lightsabre into the open mouth of a Zabrak mercenary, making him fall down like a puppet whose strings had been cut when the hot laser blade emerged out on the other side. She had little time to enjoy this triumph when suddenly a Wookiee slammed his fist into the back of her head, sending her flying into the wooden wall of a lodge.

A Wookiee jumped at her as she got her bearings back and she fired off several shots with her blaster pistol, taking him out after seven, then swirled her lightsabre, taking the arms off one Wookiee. Her lightsabre spun in a blue blur to deflect blaster bolts coming for her and reflect them back to the shooters, but the Wookiee who had thrown her used her distraction to tackle her from behind as he suddenly emerged from the lodging. Pretty much launching himself into her, he forced to the floor with such force there was a sickening crunch, blood emerging from her mouth. As he gripped her neck and prepared to launch her down again, suddenly there was the sound of blasters and cries from the entrance. Taalbak's men were starting to storm the barricades, bolts came flying towards him. He cried out as a bowcaster round hit him in the arm, then suddenly there was the howl of a wind and he was knocked into the wall.

Siobhan arose, panting a bit. As the Wookiee tried to get up she was on him and struck. He gripped her hand and tried to rotate it back, aiming to strike her with her own weapon but Siobhan pressed on and landed a hard kink into his leg, then drove the blade in, impaling him upon it. Explosions rocked the tree town as Taalbak's men started lobbing grenades, the sounds of battle drew ever closer. She removed a grenade from her belt and hurled it through the air towards a party of Wookiees storming out of the longhouse.

As it landed and those warriors not lucky enough to dodge were taken down or wounded by the shockwave she ran. With a tug from the Force she pulled one of the lighter swords lying on the ground into her free hand, probably one that had been wielded by a mercenary. Fighting with two blades was awkward, but she managed and started to hack her way through. Dodging a strike at her head she twirled both blades to clove a Wookiee in the head, then spun to stab down on a Wookiee lying behind her as he twitched, trying to recover from the impact of the grenade attack.

"Sorry, furry. Heaven doesn't want me cause I'd corrupt everyone, hell's scared I'd blow up all the furnaces!. Or the eternal waiting room. So...off to the void with you," Siobhan quipped, evidently in lame action holo-movie banter mood again. Alas, due to the fact that he was currently suffering from an unfortunatre case of death, the furry in question could not respond. Wielding her blades, she increased her pace and ran towards the lodginghouse where the Great Chieftain was assumed to be still giving commands from, dashing when she heard a blaster cannon tear through the wood....

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea did have a flare for the dramatic, and so once her cannon had ripped up the floor she drove up straight through the weakened floor with her speeder bike and laid about her with the bike's cannon. Graz had his repeater cannon out and the unfortunate Muun advisor was almost cut in half by a salvo of fire.

By now the hut was on fire, and smoke filled the room as Tegaea dismounted and opened fire with her pistols. It was as she was turning and looking for new targets when a massive weight struck her, and she fell. her shoulder felt like it was broken and she dropped that pistol in agony and rolled over, just in time. Zardok had found a massive hammer. Towering over her, he raised the hammer again, but suddenly Graz was there. His cannon was empty, but he wanted to deal with his brother personally in any case. Massive blade out, he charged Zardok, and the battle was on.
Clutching her shoulder, Tegaea found that she could still move it, but it hurt like the devil. As the two wookiees fought she couldn't get a clear shot at them. Smoke and fire was filling the room and she started to cough violently. Getting to her feet she staggered out into the open air, peering back in as best she could into the inferno.

She could see Siobhan running up. "Graz and Zardok are in there!" she shouted over the roaring flames. "Stay here, it's too dangerous!" Probably the wrong thing to say to someone like Siobhan!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan had slaughtered her way through the thinning ranks of Wookiees when she saw her wounded lover stagger out of the lodging. Further away Taalbak's men were breaking through the barricades. Her clothes were ripped in places and covered in blood and dirt, her features seemed obscured by the blood on her face. She looked very much the avenging fury.

She gripped Tegaea by the shoulder and examined her wounds with concern, then her fiery eyes turned to the inferno inside, showing nothing but icy resolve. Besides, given that Tegaea had jumped onto a gunship, she could hardly tell her somewhat crazy lover about safety standards. "He betrayed us, I'm settling the score. Stay here, Taalbak's men are breaking through."

With that she affixed her gaze upon the battle raging between Zardok and Graz, and somersaulted, leaping over the flames into the fray. Smoke and fire had filled the room, flames were consuming the wooden pillars and walls, even the throne of Zardok threatened to be engulfed by the purifying flames. She tried to call on the Force to control her breathing as she started to cough.

Graz was busy fighing Zardok, slashing at him with his heavy blade. The Wookiee King suffered a swipe against the cheek and blood started to drip onto his black fur, but in his wild frenzy and blood rage he paid no attention to it and continued advancing on Graz. Graz dodged one of Zardok's strikes, then surged forward to slash into his chest, but Zardok side-stepped and punched him with full force in the face, then picked up his hammer and brought it down on his head, slamming hard upon him. Graz grunted in evident pain, but then tried to jump up and slash his claws into Zardok's face. Zardok howled in pain, but suddenly he grabbed one of Graz' arms and struck into it with his claws, then kicked him and swung his hammer right into his adversary's chest, making him fall.

"You leave me no choice, brother. I won't let you destroy Kashyyyk," he stated, gripping him by the throat and slamming him into a pillar. Graz was still breathing and tried to move up to strike, but Zardok swung forward with his hammer. But then in this very moment Siobhan jumped and sailed through the air. The Wookiee realised at the last moment that she was coming and tried to dodge, but nonetheless she scored a swipe into his shoulder that made him cry out in pain as the hot plasma of her sabre burnt into it. The ex-Jedi landed on the floor and spun in a quick motion, scoring a roundhouse kick into his face as she slammed her boot into it.

"Missed me, Majesty? Hope I'm not late for the party!" she quipped, holding her blade in an offensive stance.

"You. I knew vengeance would call you here. You have sold yourself out to the off-worlders, Graz," Zardok snarled. "Oh, shut up." In response Siobhan stormed forward, not giving him a reprieve. He swung his mighty axe at her and she ducked, slashing at him. Holding her sabre with one hand she turned the robot hand so that the elbow punched into his arm, forcing him back. Her lightsabre clashed with his hammer again and again as they raced across the blazing inferno, until they were locked in a battle of wills as their weapons crossed. For a moment it seemed like he would overpower her and she grit her teeth as slowly but surely his superior strength made her recoil, then she thrust out of her hand and knocked him into the wall with a force push. Pieces of wood came falling down on him from the impact.

Siobhan relentless advanced upon him, heedless of the flames that were spreading across the room and setting it ablaze. She pounced and brought up her sabre, holding it above her head to deliver the killing blow. But Zardok was far from beaten and, instead of just dodging or tripping to her, he surged upward with great speed and launched himself against her as if he were a battering ram. Siobhan was caught off-guard his manoeuvre and could not even attempt a counter-blow or dodge his attack and she thrust backward for several metres as she sailed through the room, landing painfully on the ground. Fire was starting to consume the wall right behind her, she coughed violently, her vision turned hazy. As she tried to pull herself together and roll out of the way Zardok jumped and was upon her.

With a punch in the face he knocked her back down and positioned himself on top of her, hearing a satisfying crunch when he landed on the ex-Jedi, using his full weight to keep her down. Raising his fist he hit her straight in the face, his claws cut into her cheeks and tore through the vulnerable flesh to spill blood, becoming more frenzied with every moment. She struggled and thrashed, trying everything to knock him off, but Zardok was persistent. "I only wanted to make the Wookiees great, united and free. You offworlders call me a backstabber, but how many of our people have you taken? I travelled across the stars and I learnt one important lesson: The Galaxy gives no favours to the weak! And you think you can judge me." He pounded her with brutal intensity as he spoke these words.

Siobhan coughed and spat out blood. She moved to kick him and thrust her pelvis against him, trying to wriggle out. He grabbed her cyborg hand and painfully wrenched it backwards, she cried out, but her flesh hand managed to grip a knife attached to her belt and she stabbed him in the side, driving the blade in as deep as she could. The Wookiee howled, baring his fangs, and paused for a short moment, but then he came down on her again, not bothering to remove the offending dagger and sought to sink his fangs into her neck.

But this had been the short breathing space Siobhan needed and allowed her to focus on a piece of wood plaiting lying a few metres away, it had been ripped off from the main wall by the blaster cannon fire. When Graz realised what was happening the wood plaiting came flying straight at him. The burning wood hit him with great force and knocked him back, he howled and tried to put out the flames.

"You're right, you either get to the top or end up in a dung heap," Siobhan snarled, breathing heavily. "But you did the dumbest thing ever: Turn on Tegs and me." With a tug from the Force her lightsabre came flying back into her hand and she reignited it, the blue blade humming. "The moment someone does that, they die. Today...you're my little queen."

She ran at him, Zardok threw the wood plaiting at her, but she dove sideways, then she jumped and leapt across him, escaping a swing from his axe against her legs and landing behind him. The Wookiee spun right away and she thrust forward with her lightsabre, stabbing him in the right eye and burning it out. With an animalistic cryl, he grabbed ahold of her arm and as she moved to stab down and held in his crushing grip, trying to wrench it back towards her. Siobhan struggled, but then responded with a fast kick upward into his arm. The Wookiee lunged forward and she cut into his hand, taking it off.

In a pure rage she headbutted her, slamming their foreheads together, a manoeuvre that did her more harm than him since humans were far more vulnerable. She reeled, staggering, fire came closer, spreading across the room, seemingly almost encircling them. The flames spread to their quarters and Siobhan backflipped to avoid a burning pillar falling upon them. She stretched out with the Force and hurled it at Zardok, but with great speed he stormed out of its firing line and so it landed in the wall, fuelling the fires. As he came at her Siobhan jumped, his claws cut into her leg and left deep marks, but with her free leg she kicked him and swiped down with her sabre into his back in a brutal, raking cut that shore flesh and bone. He was forced down to his knees by the pain and when she landed she slashed into his jaw and kicked him in the throat.

Zardok spat up blood as he beheld the ruin of all he had strove to build. Fire had engulfed the entire room, pillars were burning and the walls crumbled. But he refused to yield and beg, at least some semblance of Wookiee honour remained with him. "Do it...human. I die a free..." Siobhan clove her lightsabre into his head just as he tried to lunge, chopping it off and sending it tumbling down onto the floor. Cracks appeared in the ceiling and parts of it fell down, landing right next to them, cracks opened in the wooden floor.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Suddenly, a paw reached out and grabbed Siobhan, dragging her back just in time from the edge of the burning abyss. Graz, blood matting his fur and coughing violently, dragged her out.
Tegaea, who had been waiting apprehensively ran in and helped both out into the open air, giving each a rebreather she had in turn. Kneeling down besides Siobhan she did her best to staunch the bleeding while calling for medics to come.
"Stay with me, Kerri...no time for sleep just yet!" Tegaea told her, shaking her every time she seemed about to pass out.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

It was Siobhan's good fortune that Graz gripped her tight when all hell broke loose. With Zardok dead the adrenaline had worn and her body had remembered the beating she had just went through, including being thrown through the room and pummelled by an angry Wookiee. Staggering and limping, she slumped, the flames would have gotten her and then the floor under her cracked.

Behind Siobhan the palace was burning down, the cleansing flames cosuming all Zardok had built. Siobhan coughed violently as she was dragged out, bleeding from several wounds. She took in a deep breath when Tegaea placed the rebreather on her, then her head seemed to fall sideways as she was about to pass out, before Tegaea shook her.

"But...I'm having such fun dreams," Siobhan tried to quip lamely, rubbing against a cut on her neck as Tegaea shook her. Her vision had grown blurry, she was trying hard to maintain consciousness. "Darn, I was hoping to keep a trophy," she muttered to herself when she managed to tilt her head despite the pain to look back at the blazing inferno. Unless Zardok's corpse had fallen through the hole, they would probably get no rug. She groaned, breathing in. "Told you I'd win."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

"I never said you wouldn't! We're not keeping score you know," Tegs said. Perhaps she'd forgotten than an hour ago she'd jumped onto a gunship from a tree and attacked it with a lightsabre!

Either way, soon Taalbak arrived with his victorious warriors, and set about putting out the fire before it spread too far. Tegaea too was starting to feel her wounds, so before she slipped down next to Siobhan and blessed rest she gave orders that they were to be take back to their transport for treatment. She took Siobhan's hand as she lay beside her.

"Thank, Kerri," Tegs said feelingly, and passed out.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

The battle was won and Taalbak's warriors were taking control over the city. As was usual in civil wars, this occupation had its share of brutalities and of some of Zardok's men being shot out of hand or beaten before the officers tried to restore some semblance of order and round up the surrendering enemy warriors. The palace was wrecked and ere the Wookiees put out the fire it had spread to some of the adjourning lodges. It would take time before the city no longer resembled the battlefield it had been in the past few moments.

"Any time, hun," Siobhan murmured, trying to hilt her head sideways to kiss Tegaea on the cheek, but before she could make the move she had passed out and slipped into the realm of Morpheus. Sensation returned to her by degree, assembling itself piece by piece as the bright light invaded her flesh eye. Her cyborg eye acclimated itself more quickly to her surroundings, which were identified as the medbay of the transport vessel. She flexed her fingers, the robot hand was slow to respond, sluggish, apparently the neural interface had taken quite a hit. She must have been dosed with a load of painkillers, bacta patches covered more serious injuries, though in spite of that she had accumulated several scars across her body that the miracle cure could not heal.

"I need a freaking drink. A strong one," she muttered to herself, wincing when she tried to stretch and looked around to see where Tegaea lay. She also felt a strong craving for a smoke, as ironic as that might be considering that she had just been rescued out of a burning building and been coughing her lungs out!

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

When Tegaea came to they were on board the transport. Her shoulder was now heavily wrapped, and the pain had gone down. Her other injuries were sore, but still bearable. Looking across at Siobhan she grinned. "You and me both. Also, remind me never to do anything like this again," she said. Jumping onto gunships, righting wookiees, killing monsters...it all seemed to be part and parcel of her day!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Just another day on the Alcori and Kerrigan Crazy Mayhem Express! Slaying beasts, leaping on gunships, toppling a king. Siobhan groaned, now that the painkillers were wearing off her face was beginning to remember the fact that a very angry Wookiee had used it as a punching bag, but it was bearable. Nonetheless she laughed, her lips felt dry.

"I'll keep it in mind," she said dryly. "On the bright side we sent out a pretty clear 'don't mess with Siobhan and Tegaea, cause if you they'll kick your arse and even the meanest beasties in the Galaxy won't stop 'em and they'll unleash hell on your shiny kingdom' signal," she chuckled a bit. "Ok, I suppose having a bunch of angry Wookiees helped," she amended slightly. Just a bit, Siobhan had a bit of an ego, after all!

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

They were just there to follow up our success, right? We had it all sewn up but they just stopped us needing to do anything more," Tegaea said loftily, then laughed. "Well, maybe they did a bit more than that. Either way, I think we need some quiet time...at the office...and elsewhere!"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Hopefully the crew had made all the arrangements for Taalbak to pay the bill for the weapons they'd sold him while our two heroines were knocked out. Without wanting to diminish their heroic exploits, it would be unfortunate if later on the accounting department was forced to conclude that the mission was unsatisfactory from a fiscal perspective! Did Wookiees even have accountants?

A smile crossed Siobhan's dry lips. "Quiet time...I hear you on that," she stretched and leaned over. Her sore back voiced its protest at the movement, but she pulled Tegs' bed closer with a tug from the Force. "With this great redheaded chick I'm dating. She's really hot and has these muscles that make me go crazy. Hmm. She's real badass in a fight. Has this commanding personality and is heroically crazy enough to jump on gunships and hack them into pieces." she quipped. "What was her name again?" she reached to gently cup Tegaea's cheek and give her a kiss.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

"Huh...I've heard it before, but people spell it in so many ways. Tagea, Tegea, Tegina...something like this. I've heard about this former Jedi who's not a wet hen and who does crazy things like boxing an angry wookiee in a burning building. What was her name? Syban or something?"
She returned the kiss.

"Well, at least we got paid...and they've agreed to buy more weapons when the time comes very soon. Gods know where they get the money from...."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Oh, yeah, that one. Hear she's an unstoppable whirlwind of massive property destruction...and really likes it when the redhead ties her up and makes her bend to her," Siobhan responded with a wink, deepening the kiss.

"Hmm. A wizard did it?" Siobhan suggested sarcastically when it came to the Wookiees' monetary reserves. "They could make lots out of adventure safaris."

The transport vessel traversed through the vastness of hyperspace, now that their noble venture had been accomplished. Hooray, now that the duplicitous tyrant Zardok had been overthrown, no doubt Kashyyyk could forward to a brave new future in which the Wookiee chieftains would rule in consensus and be armed against the xenos that assailed them. No doubt certain detractors might bring up socioeconomic arguments for why Zardok might not have been so bad and why in fact he represented progress.

They might also argue that in a Galaxy where the Republic and the Sith are eager to pursue manifest destiny, isolationists stand no chance, but we shan't bore our readers with such dull arguments. In any case, they would pale before the heroines' prowess!