The calm
Kell stared out across the lush forest below the ruins from his perch in the remnants of the few towers still standing. His rifle trained out across the expanse watching for any kind of movement or hint or approach. The stalwart sniper and assassin of Epsilon squad, keeping a silent vigil over their base camp and safe guarding what few vital supplies they still had. Though he had been in this situation time and time again, once even waiting a full six days without moving an inch till his target came into view, his mind trailed as it always did. This day they drifted to one subject in particular, how freaking bored he was.
He didn’t mind the peaceful woodlands - after all, they were a welcome change of pace from constantly being shot at. Part of him yearned for those blasted battlefields and ruined cityscapes, at least he’d have something to do besides sit here and play guard. Looking through his scope he started to line up that weathervane once again with a childish smirk coming across his face. He wondered if his brother had reached that town yet. In Kell’s mind he could hear Kad scolding him already for scaring the osik out of the townsfolk of the primitive planet. The calculations ran through his head at lightning speed as his finger came around the trigger. Suddenly something caught his attention and made him hold his fire. A winged figure cutting through the clouds, from this distance it was impossible for him to guess anything beyond size and current airspeed.
“What in the endless black was that?” He muttered to himself as he lowered his weapon.
A signal flashed several times on Kell’s HUD, it was Kad and his signal for switching to an encrypted long range frequency, “Big Sam’s Fish Market: we catch ’em, you gut ’em.”
Over the comlink he could hear the sound of his brother muttering a curse or three, “Why did I request you join my squad again?”
“Because you’re dumb and a horrible judge of character.” Kell laughed.
Kad sighed, “Kell, shut up, I’ve got a mission for ya.”
“Darn and here I was enjoying my guard duty here at fort Pile’o Rubble.” He said in a condescending tone, “What d’ya need bro?”
“I want you to rendezvous us. Found some locals out here in the woods and some soldiers holdin’ them at blaster point… I think they were Deathwatch.” Kad let this last part slip quietly to his brother.
An icy lump landed square in the middle of Kell’s stomach as he heard this, “Whoa wait, I think there’s a problem with our comlink, ‘cause it sounded like you said Deathwatch.”
“I wish,” Kad sighed out, “They were waitin’ for us at the ship, a couple of locals happened to get there first and ended up gettin’ blaster rifle neck massages. The rookie and I found ’em before things got outta hand. Heard one of ‘em blurt out they were Deathwatch.”
Kell shook his head in frustration, “Jeez, all the cool stuff happens when I’m not around.”
“Just move your sheb, will ya? We’re continuin’ on to the settlement, I want you to hook up with us halfway.” Kad stated before killing the comlink.
“Roger that vod, moving out.” Kell stated before cutting off his comlink.
The simple thing to do would be to just take the stairs back down and head out of the ruins through the main hall but that would also be the boring thing to do. With a smirk the sniper took a few steps away from the broken out window before running head long towards it and launching himself into the air. His free fall only lasted half a second but it felt like an eternity as the wind whipped past his armor. As he neared the ground his jet pack kicked on and stopped his descent letting him safely touchdown unharmed.
Taking a moment to glance back up at the window he’d just jumped through Kell couldn’t help but laugh at his own antics, “Hah, we have the coolest jobs in the galaxy.”
Bringing his rifle up to his shoulder Kell began his sprint into woods following the locator signal for his brother. Kad’s information still ate away at his stomach though, the Deathwatch were back and they’d shot up their precious ship. His emotions began to slowly turn towards a driving need for revenge. A sneer stretched across his face, he’d make them pay for every blaster burn every scratch in the paint and every dent in the hull. Deathwatch or not nobody wrecks up the Cheatin’ Whore and gets away with it, nobody.
On Kad’s side of the forest he glanced over his shoulder at Arkanna who still had a frightened pegasus latched onto him. The rest of her friends had recovered more or less and were now trying to help calm her down. The poor girl seemed to be made of glass, and Kad was sure being held at knife point didn’t help her much. His heart went out to the poor girl it really did but sentimental feelings would have to wait.
Turning back to the group he cleared his throat, “Okay I need to keep this brief so listen up,” Switching himself over to authority mode, “Quick introductions, I’m Captain Kad Skirata, he’s Private Arkanna Kershom,” Nodding in his comrade’s direction, “We’re from the Mandalorian Neo Protectors and I’m sure you have a mountain of questions but I need you all to save them till we’re out of these woods. We don’t know how many more of those Deathwatch troopers are out there and I don’t want our position bein’ given away so please keep the small talk down.”
His visor fell on Arkanna, “Private, you plan on carryin’ her the whole way?” A hint of annoyance hung in his voice.
Arkanna looked between his commanding officer and the one he’d heard Rarity call Fluttershy, “No sir, it’s just… She’s got a really mean grip, Captain.”
With an annoyed sigh Kad looked to the other three ponies for a hand, or hoof in their case, “Ladies if you wouldn’t mind collectin’ your friend.”
The other three were helpful enough in getting their friend to let his soldier go they could continue on. Kad could have sworn that purple one with the horn had given him a dirty look. Not that it would matter in the long run, keeping his men and them alive was the only priority. They could vilify him all they wanted and tell their little children scary stories about the heartless man from the stars. At least they’d be alive to tell the stories.
“Now, do any of you know the fastest route out of here?” Kad softened his tone in hopes of compliance, “Preferably one that won’t draw a lot of attention to us.”
“OH, I know!” The bright pink one chimed in loud and happily, “If we head that way it’ll put us right outside Fluttershy’s cabin!” She stated proudly, waving her hoof in the direction; she reminded him of the time Kell gave the ad’ikas too many sweets.
“Arkanna, take point and keep an eye out for Kell’s marker.” Arkanna nodded in compliance and quickly moved out ahead of the group. With that done Kad looked back to the pink one, furrowing his brow behind his visor. “And pinkie, try to keep it down, will ya? We don’t need any more of those troopers showin’ up.”
Her massive blue eyes grew almost twice their size, “Wow! You guessed my name in one try! What gave it away?”
“Wait your name is… Ya know what? Fine. I’m not even gonna question this.” Kad looked to the purple one, “So what’s yours, Violet?”
“Actually my name is Twilight Sparkle,” She replied in a fairly civil tone, “I’d like to thank you for helping us earlier, but…” She gave an uneasy look towards where the short lived skirmish had taken place, “Was it necessary to kill those things?”
Kad muttered something under his breath before he started marching, “Ma’am, when we get someplace safer I’ll be more than happy to exchange philosophies with ya. Till then you’d best stick close to us, unless you wanna wait for more them.” He motioned with his helmet over his shoulder back towards the clearing they had left behind.
In his head he started drawing a few parallels between this Twilight Sparkle and a Jedi he’d met a few years ago. Kad hadn’t gotten along with her at all and it felt like he and Twilight would be no different. For three months they were constantly at one another’s throats over every little thing. By the end of that mission they’d come to literal blows four times and to his pride Kad took her arm in their final duel. He hoped he was wrong about this unicorn, last thing he wanted to do was turn his saber on her but damnit all if she didn’t sound just like a Jedi.
On the outskirts of the forest sat the tiny village of Ponyville. On the far edge of the town sat a small stone building with a large red cross painted against a white background. Inside this building the medical officer of Epsilon squad, Zex Thornedrak looked over the notes he’d been given by the pair of medical ponies. Behind his visor his eyes quickly scanned over their prognosis and from what he could tell he was fairly close with his own diagnosis earlier. Maybe pony anatomy wasn’t that hard to figure out after all.
Setting the notes on a table alongside his weapon he looked over at the freshly patched up pegasus on the gurney at the center of the room. It had taken some doing to convince Applejack to leave Rainbow Dash’s side and trust him and the nurses to care for her. Loyalty and comradery like that was why he’d signed up with the Protectors in the first place.
The sky blue pegasus began to stir and shift with a labored groan and what he assumed were curse words as far as these pony things went. Zex moved to her side and spoke softly, “Whoa there, you’ve been through a lot. If you move around too much, you’ll just make your injuries worse.”
“Ugh… Horse-apples… What happened to the hydra?” She grumbled as the haze began to fade, “Rarity and Applejack… They alright?” Her tone began to border on panic.
“The hydra is dead and your friends are safe.” Zex stated coolly.
Eventually the fog lifted from the mare’s eyes bringing the armored figure into view, “What the hay!” She exclaimed in shock as she tried to move away only to rewarded with a shock of pain through her body, “Ow.”
Zex shook his head and crossed his arms, “Relax. If I wanted to hurt you, why would I bring you back to your village? Or the hospital, for that matter?”
The bandaged pegasus turned this fact over in her head a moment before settling down, “You… have a point there.” She reluctantly conceded, “Who and what are you though?”
“I’m Corporal Zex Thornedrak, I’m a medical officer with a group of people called the Mandalorian Neo Protectors.” He began to slowly inform her as he started to remove his helmet, “As for what I am, my species is known as Zabrak.”
“Nice horns.” She commented moving her foreleg over her head.
“Thanks, trimmed them a few days ago.” Reaching onto the table Zex picked up the notes that Tenderheart had left him on her condition, “Ms. Dash, I have to say I’m impressed you took such relatively light damage considering the circumstances. I honestly expected to find you at the bottom of that tree with your spine folded in half like a piece of flimsy.”
She was noticeably uncomfortable with how forward he was being on the subject, “Well I am one of the toughest ponies around.” She said with a proud smirk puffing out her chest, a sharp pain caused her to quickly deflate, “Ouch.”
“Bruised ribs.” Zex stated flatly as he looked the sheet over, “No matter the planet or the species, verda are always the same.”
Rainbow tilted her head in confusion, “A what?”
“Verda, warriors in the Mando’a tongue.” He pointed out, “No matter where you come from, you all do the same thing: run head long into the blaster fire then limp back to people like me or Tenderheart to patch you back up.”
She lowered her head a bit and tried to avoid the medic’s stern gaze, “I couldn’t just let that thing hurt my friends.” Rainbow Dash said bitterly.
“But you didn’t have to take it on alone,” Zex countered, “You had a team of able bodied, uh, ponies. If you had worked with them as a team you could have avoided ending up in a hospital bed. Hell, if our team hadn’t shown up all three of you would be in that thing’s belly.”
Zex noticed how deeply his words were starting to cut into the girl, “Look, life is a very finite currency Ms. Dash,” His tone began to soften as he rested a hand gently on her back, “Don’t be in such a hurry to spend it so quickly.”
Zex had to remind himself she was clearly still young and still had that fire they all had in their bellies. He just hoped she’d be one of the lucky ones that learned the hard lessons of combat before she ended up extinguished. Maybe this life patching up the wounded was starting to make him jaded like the others had pointed out, if that was the case then he owed Kad his prized bottle of Trandoshan Blood Wine.
Arkanna continued to press on ahead of the main group, quietly stepping between downed branches and logs, doing everything his training told him to avoid making a sound. He kept his weapon at the ready, constantly scanning ahead of himself for any hint of life or movement that could pose a threat. He was sure he was alone but couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
A snapped twig behind him caused him to whirl around bringing his weapon up, only to find a familiar timid pegasus on the other end of his cross hairs. “Haar’chak, don’t sneak up on me like that!” He cursed at her as he quickly pointed his weapon’s muzzle to the ground.
The look of fear etched across her face told him plainly that she knew what his weapon was and what it could do, “Look, sorry about snapping at you, ma’am.” He said calmly as he brought his carbine at ease across his chest, “Bit on edge being on a strange world and all.”
She seemed to settle a bit after his apology but continued to hold her silence as she watched him, “So, they said your name is Fluttershy, right?” She nodded a yes to Arkanna’s question. A little progress is progress right? “Mesh’la gai, why aren’t you back with the rest of your friends?”
Looking off to a patch of ground she spoke softly at almost a whisper, “I… I wanted to thank you for saving me; I’m sorry for bothering you though.” Her face turned a shade of red, “I’ll just get out of your way Mr. Arkanna.”
“Naw, you’re okay I guess.” He said, feeling a bit sorry for the shy girl, “Just stay close to me and try not to make too much noise.”
Hearing this, her attitude seemed to drastically change for the better as a smile stretched from ear to ear, “Oh, thank you, I promise not get in your way.” She said happily in that soft tone as her wings lifted her a few feet off the ground.
It occurred to him that it was rather strange how such tiny wings could lift her off the ground like that. Zex would probably be able to spout off some medical jargon about evolution and junk to explain it. The galaxy was certainly full of some pretty wild and crazy junk.
Arkanna pressed onward with Fluttershy floating close behind him. For the most part she’d remained quiet for the trek, “Uhm, I was wondering if I could ask you something, I mean, if it’s not too much trouble. I don’t want to seem like a bother.”
He came to a stop just outside the clearing his HUD had marked to meet up with Kell, “What’s on your mind Fluttershy?”
“Oh well…” She looked to be having trouble digging the words up, “What exactly are Mandalorians?”
Arkanna could barely hold back a laugh which caused her head to droop sadly as she landed on the ground behind him, “Sorry, I don’t mean any offense. It’s just that, people have asked that question for centuries.” He took a knee to put himself at eye to visor level with her, “To be honest, it’d take too long for me to explain, especially to an aruetii.”
She lowered her gaze away from his venturing a glance past him when it looked as though something moved. Something was indeed moving: it looked like a watery reflection of the forest around it, and was headed straight towards them both. Her eyes went wide in panic as she jumped back, screaming.
Arkanna brought his weapon around but found it stopped half-way and wrenched from his hand as a blow connected with his chest plate. Stumbling to his feet he quickly went for his pistol, only to feel a much heavier blow strike his torso with a loud metallic clang. Falling backwards he found himself staring up at the barrels of both his carbine and a long rifle.
“Hey rookie, you need to seriously work on that reaction time.” Kell’s all too familiar voice rang out as the reflective shimmer faded away revealing his comrade standing over him.
Before any other quips could be exchanged Kad entered the clearing with the other three ponies close beside him, “Good work private, you found Kell and Ms. Fluttershy.”
Kell gave the gathering of quadrupeds a once-over before looking to Kad, “Vod, I thought you said you were looking for locals not pets.” He quickly noticed the enraged glares he was receiving from them for his comment, “Osik, they can understand me can’t they?”
Arkanna dusted himself off as he got back up and took his carbine back, “Hey Staff Sergeant, remember how you said you were gonna get you some local babes? Meet some of the local babes.” The private did little to hide his sarcastic tone and was rewarded feeling the muzzle of Kell’s high powered blaster rifle press against the side of his helmet.
“Kell, no vapin’ the rookies,” Kad was quick to chastise him, “He’ll probably get himself killed soon enough.”
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Oh sweet Celestia dis is good.
989675
Naw vod, I'd be surprised if you let that stuff slip by, I'll go make the changes, thanks for spotting them.
That symbol was all i needed to see to give you a thumb.
Now ill read to see if it gets a fave too! 
Glad to finally see this here! Sup' Doc
New chapter for Xenophobia by the way. I await your opinion with bated breath
990580
Yeah, since I'm still working on other stuff I figured now was as good a time as any. So far it's been well received.
990508
Vor entye ner burc'ya! Looking forward to hearing what you think about it.
989811
S'what you get for not telling me before you transfer things. >( I'da gone through and made it look nice.
Very nice star wars crossover so far!
Post some moar SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!
Nice, you've carried over from Fanfiction.
Now... When is that second story coming along? I'm rather curious.
1007746
Soon, soon.
Come to think of it, I'm still waiting on that update in FanFiction.
Oof.Kell’s gonna have to work on some of his reflex’s.