As the night rolled around, William had contacted his superior and reported their interaction with the Sith Lord. The response his superior gave him was just to complete the mission no matter what. He was given the go ahead to use everything in his arsenal if anything happened.
There was also a team of Ascendants who were put on standby, ready to swoop in and provide reinforcents should it be needed. But the team was only on call mode, and if sohow William’s communicator was disabled or destroyed, then he would need another way to get in contact with them.
William was supposed to depart with Lirenn the next day, but leaving Maren at the rcy of the Sith was not sothing he would feel good doing considering the fact that she is an Imperial citizen.
He sat with his back against the wall beside the clinic’s entrance, gas mask hanging from his belt, listening to the city as it settled into the night.
Three Sith patrol units had passed the clinic since sundown. The intervals between them had beco more frequent, which ant the patrol schedule had changed been changed or they could be increasing patrols because of active resistance elents within the city.
He kept thinking about this as Maren ca down and sat down across from him. She had changed out of her dical coat and was holding two cups of warm beverages.
"You don’t sleep," she said, offering him one of the cups.
"Not much," he replied, grabbing the cup.
"The Sith soldier in the back room left an hour ago," she said. "He climbed out the window while I was checking on another patient. He took his equipnt but left his ration pack."
"Did he see anything he shouldn’t have?"
"He saw a clinic full of sick people." She wrapped both hands around her own cup. "That’s all there was to see."
William didn’t entirely believe that, but he also recognized that Maren had been managing the situation longer than he had been here. He also wondered what other secrets she was hiding. The more he thought about it, the more trouble he figured this sister would bring him on his mission.
"The Sith Lord will most likely be back," William said.
Maren knew this but still sighed just thinking about it, "He’s been coming around since the third month of occupation. I don’t want to think about it, but he has a particular idea about what a physician willing to treat anyone without asking questions could do for him. The first six tis he was polite about it. But around the fifth ti he stopped being polite."
"Does he know about the intelligence you’ve been collecting?"
"He suspects I’ve been watching patrol patterns. I don’t think he knows what I’ve done with the information." She paused as she thought about whether or not she should reveal this information. She knew William was working under orders of the Directorate, but she didn’t know exactly who he was or what type of position he held.
For all she knew he could be so high-ranking agent. But if she thought about it logically, telling him might benefit her.
"I’ve been sending it to a contact within the resistance through a supply driver who cos twice a week. It’s not much, just patrol counts, approximate personnel numbers, which buildings have been converted to garrison use. You know, just the kind of thing soone observant can gather from a window."
"It’s also the kind of thing that gets soone executed in an occupied city," William said.
"Yes," she agreed. "I’m aware of that."
He looked at her for a mont wondering what else she was hiding. From all the things she was doing, it would seem like she was in with the resistance.
Before they could continue their conversation, a supply transport approached the front. William grabbed his weapon just in case but was stopped by Maren. "This is the contact I was telling you about." she said.
He relaxed a little but still kept his hand on his weapon.
From the truck erged a human and 5 hooded figures. The human who was a male walked forward followed by the hooded figures and reached his hand out to greet Maren.
"It’s nice to see you again Maren, I hope everything has been good since the last ti we saw each other." greeted the man.
"Everything has been good Dio, except for what happened yesterday, but we can talk about that inside after you tell who these people are." she said, looking at the 5 hooded figures.
"Of course," he said turning around. "If you would introduce yourselves gentleman."
The hooded figures stepped forward and then took their hoods off, one by one.
"I’m Master Jiran, and the 4 behind are Jedi Knight Daren, Elira, Calix, and Jorath. We were sent here by the resistance since we are planning to attack the city tonight." introduced Master Jiran.
Maren was shocked at what she had just heard and had quickly rushed them inside. But what they didn’t know was that their entire interaction being watched from afar by agents of the Sith Lord.
Rushing them inside, the group ca into contact with William who knew that these 5 were Jedi Knights.
"Who’s this?" asked Master Jiran.
"Oh, this is William, he is an Imperial agent sent to protect my sister while she visited ." explained Maren.
"Imperial agent, huh." Master Jiran looked at this person and noticed that he was different from the Imperial agents he had seen in his life.
This was also due to William hiding his presence in the Force, making him appear like a normal person.
"You can trust him, he knows most of everything." said Maren.
"Yeah, thought there are still so things that I don’t know." William could sense that these 5 were Jedi and they were here then that ant that the Sith would be here soon enough. He wondered what Maren was thinking bringing them inside when the Sith were already suspicious of her.
"Also, Maren, you know that they are suspicious of you. So why would you invite them in where everybody can see?" he asked.
Realizing her mistake, Maren’s face turned into fear. "You think they saw?" she asked.
"I know for a fact that they saw. That Sith Lord probably had people watching us since he left. Now you just gave them justification to do whatever they want to seize not just the clinic, but you."
"And those 5 don’t help." he said gesturing towards the Jedi.
"What do you an?" asked Master Jiran.
William sighed. "You Jedi stand out too much. Why would you walk up to the entrance in the typical hooded Jedi robes that are known by practically everybody."
"Well, Maren said that they weren’t aware of her activities in her last ssage so we didn’t think anything of it." replied Master Jiran.
William sighed, placing his hand on his head. ’This is why they can’t win’ voiced William in his head.
And not a mont too soon explosions began to rock the ground as alarms blared. The resistance had begun their attack on the city.
At the sa ti, a group of Sith Imperial troopers and Mandalorians had advanced on the clinic followed by Sith Lord.
"Get everybody into cover, they are coming." warned William.
"I sense them too. Luckily, we were sent here to help Maren deal with them. I suggest you stand back and let us deal with this. We can’t have an Imperial dying in our attack." Stated Jedi Knight Daren.
In response, William pulled out his identification card and showed it to everybody. The first to beco shocked was Maren who would never have guessed that he was a Balance Keeper. The second was Master Jiran who was not so much shocked as he was surprised that a Balance Keeper would be all the way out here.
"So, you’re actually a high ranked person." said Maren.
"Yes, I am."
"I knew sothing was off about you, but I would have never guessed you were a Balance Keeper." said Master Jiran.
"If your here then you must be on orders from the Emperor then?" asked Jed Knight Jorath.
"I am not on order directly from the Emperor, but I am carrying out his will." replied William. "But we don’t have ti to talk, lets prepare for the incoming Sith."
Everybody agreed and had run off to prepare instead of asking more questions. The Jedi posted up at the front, with William among them, while Maren had gone to get Lirenn and bring her to a safe location.
William contacted his reinforcents now, before he wasn’t able to later. The Ascendants would arrive in 20 minutes to extract them.
Until then, they needed to hold out.
Outside, the Sith Lord who wasn’t too far away, had already ran to the clinic in response to the attack. He guessed that Maren was also part of the attack and he wanted to eliminate her before he couldn’t.
A few minutes later, the clinic door exploded inward, causing shrapnel to fly towards the Jedi who managed to deflect it.
From the hole the first wave of Sith troopers walked through, their rifles already raised. As soon as they saw the Jedi, they fired without hesitation.
The Jedi already had their Lightsabers in hands and had begun to deflect the shots back towards the Sith troopers.
William threw a flashbang which hit the ground just in front of the Sith troopers, staggering four of them. Once he saw this, he closed the distance with his plasma gun raised, firing two shots, taking down two of the troopers before they could recover their vision.
A third trooper tried to swing his rifle to where he thought William would be. But William was already in front of him, and had stepped in front of the weapon, grabbing the barrel and twisting it alongside the trooper’s arm.
The trooper scread as the bones his arm cracked. Shortly after William drove his elbow into the trooper’s helt, crushing the front of it.
The fourth trooper stumbled backward, disoriented until a short burst from William’s plasma gun ended him.
Outside, there were even more people as Mandalorians on jetpacks landed at the entrance followed by another wave of Sith troopers. Behind them was the Sith Lord who advanced forward as well.
"I warned you all," he yelled at the clinic. "You should have co willingly. But now, I have to kill all of you."
William reached over his shoulder and grabbed his gatling gun out of its case. The weapon was heavy, and excessive for most combat scenarios. But it was situation like this where he was glad to have it.
The barrels began to spin as he opened towards the front door.
The gatling rounds slamd into the trooper’s armor, tearing it apart. The Mandalorians who were wearing their new signature Beskar armor managed to still brush off so of the damage.
One of them attempted to boost upward with his jetpack, then ca back around and flew directly into the entrance of the clinic.
William saw this and had focused entirely onto that Mandalorian, eventually hitting a weak point at the joint, forcing the jetpack to malfunction. As a result, the Mandalorian crashed into the ground, their jetpack exploding.
The second Mandalorian rolled to the side, returning fire in controlled bursts, forcing William to shift position slightly. Behind him, more troopers began moving in from the flanks, attempting to breach through the clinic’s windows.
In response, he reached into his belt, pulled two canisters, and tossed them through the broken windows. The nero toxin cannisters detonated mid-air and started to spread through the air towards the Sith troopers.
In a matter of minutes, they heard screams from among the Sith. They choked and panicked as their bodies shut down from the chemicals.
William reached into his pack and pulled out 5 spare gas masks and handed them to the Jedi. "You might want to put these on before we go out there.
The Jedi complied and put them on without question. Though they still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Throwing chemical weapons at your enemies was not sothing they had ever seen the Imperium do.
The Sith Lord was unfazed by the toxin and had walked through the chaos, his red saber drawn and at the ready. William put his gatling gun back on its case and drew his lightsaber for the first ti.
As soon as the Sith Lord saw him, he attacked imdiately, closing the distance with aggressive speed. His strikes were heavy and relentless against William’s blade, but it didn’t push him back not one but.
Their blades continued to collide as the Sith chained together strike after strike with brutal efficiency.
William started to give ground one step at a ti.
This caused the Sith Lord to push harder, sensing he had the montum. But he was wrong since this was what William wanted him to think.
William gave away another step, then another, then he stopped.
The next strike from the Sith ca down hard, but William blocked it with his lightsaber. Then he let go of his blade with one of his hands, confusion spreading across the Sith’s face.
William used his free hand to grab a thermal grenade and activated it at point-blank range. He kicked the Sith backward and turned away as the explosion tore through the entrance of the clinic.
The remaining troopers were obliterated instantly. Even the Mandalorian outside was forced to retreat further back, his armor scorched by the blast.
anwhile, William stood at the entrance unhard by the explosion, while outside, the Sith Lord lay several ters away, his armor black from the explosion.
He was struggling to push himself up even though he was already defeated.
The Jedi were stunned at what they just saw. One person had just taken out about two dozen troopers in an instant.
The five of them could have done the sa, but they weren’t even given the chance.
In the distance, the battle for the city raged on. Jedi blades cut through the Sith’s defenses as resistance forces gain ground street by street. Mandalorians regrouped on rooftops, preparing counterattacks against the resistance forces. Following this were explosions which were occurring all across Veth Kaan as the Sith’s control of the city began to fall.
About 20 minutes later, the Ascendants had arrived and had extracted not just Lirenn, but also Maren. She wanted to protest, but it was more of a ’you are coming with us one way or another’ so she couldn’t even refuse.
The battle of Veth Kaan still raged on even as the transport flew out of the city. The Sith were bringing in reinforcents, but it wouldn’t be enough for the resistance who had been planning to take the city for a few months now.
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