Chapter 20: A Brief Respite

Once again, Lana found herself relegated to the support role as the others struck out at Revan’s forces. Because time was of the essence, they had split up the tasks between the eight operatives, doing their best to assign the operatives to the tasks that their skills would best support. It was frustrating that they still had so little to go off of, even though they were literally on Revan’s doorstep. Lana drummed her fingers on the table as she studied the tactical map for the third time in as many minutes. Huffing in irritation when nothing new miraculously appeared before her eyes, she strode over to the communications team and listened in on the chatter from their various operations.

Based on the chatter, all the groups were making good headway. Revanite staging areas were being destroyed, key commanders were being eliminated, and a handful of Republic scouts had been rescued from some violent natives. She should be feeling pleased at the progress, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that none of this was helping them uncover Revan’s plan. Yes, thinning out the Revanite ranks and establishing a good offensive was nothing to dismiss offhand, but there was a very real chance that Revan’s plan was already in motion and everything they’d accomplished so far was immaterial.

She was about to take yet another scan of the map when a snippet of conversation caught her ear.

“That’s a confirmed kill on the last Revanite commander we had profiled,” said one of the communications techs, a thin Zabrak male who wore Republic colors. “Wasp, make your way back to basecamp. We’ll let you know if something else requires your attention before that.”

Wasp was the callsign for the strike team that Vera had been assigned to, along with the Zabrak Sith woman and her partner, a blue-skinned Twi’lek wielding a pair of custom blaster pistols. A small burst of relief spread through Lana’s chest; while she hadn’t doubted Vera’s ability, and certainly expected the addition of the other two had only increased their odds significantly, she still was pleased to hear that they had completed their task without any trouble.

Allowing a smile to flicker across her face for an instant, Lana lingered for a short while more, listening for any further information related to Wasp. When it became apparent that the comm officer had moved on to provide updated objectives to a different team, she returned to her map, which had been waiting patiently to continue to taunt her with its lack of answers.

Before she was able to continue her exercise in futility, her datapad chimed softly. Glancing over, Lana immediately snatched up the pad at the sight of Vera’s name at the top of the newly received message. Only mildly guilty for allowing herself to be distracted so easily, she opened the message. When all she saw was a set of coordinates, her mind started racing through grim possibilities. Was Vera in trouble? Had they been ambushed on their way back? Why hadn’t they sounded an alert through the proper channels?

Another chime pulled her out of her head. This message simply said “Relaxing after mission. – Could use some company.” Immediately a wave of relief washed over Lana, and her shoulders dropped back into their normal position, as opposed to up next to her ears where they apparently had crept in tension. It would’ve been nice if Vera had sent those messages in the OPPOSITE order, Lana thought to herself, though she was fairly certain they came in precisely the order Vera had intended.

After another perusal of the map (which, unsurprisingly, still had nothing new to give), Lana checked in with the communications crew, before informing them that she’d be leaving the base for a short period to follow up on a lead. If anything monumental happened, they were to contact her, but otherwise she would be out of contact.

It was only a slight skewing of the truth, she reasoned as she grabbed her small rations pack and headed out of the encampment. After all, she was following up on a lead. It was just that the lead was related to assisting her Chiss bounty hunter with a potential desire for companionship, rather than anything related to Revan. Laughing to herself that she was even going through the exercise to rationalize her excursion, she skirted a fallen tree and set out toward Vera’s coordinates.

—

A good portion of Yavin was the kind of jungle that was so thick it was difficult to truly appreciate the beauty of your surroundings. Thick vines wrapped around the trunks of trees that stretched into the sky, their foliage often completely obscuring the blue expanse above them. The undergrowth was thick with vegetation and animal calls filled the air, repeating and overlapping with such a consistency they nearly faded into obscurity.

It was for these reasons that Lana was shocked as she pushed aside a hefty branch overflowing with leaves and found herself looking at a large clearing, dominated by a pool of still, clear water. A sudden urge to dive into that pool rose up in Lana, but it quickly lost its luster when her eyes alighted upon Vera, sitting at the edge of the pool. The bounty hunter was leaning back on her hands, her helmet on the rock next to her, face tilted up toward the sun.

Slowly, almost reverently, Lana made her way over to her partner, unable to hide her smile as she saw Vera crack an eye open at her approach. A pat of a hand as an invitation, and Lana set herself down next to Vera, their legs dangling together a few inches above the surface of the water. Reluctant to break the calming silence they found themselves in, Lana instead stared into the pool, catching glimpses of tiny, shimmering fish darting to and fro. She felt Vera push herself up and join her in her observation of the water.

Several unhurried minutes passed before Vera finally broke the quiet. “It won’t be long before we move against Revan, will it?” she asked, her voice even, as if she wasn’t referring to an upcoming confrontation the likes of which neither of them had ever seen.

“I don’t imagine so,” Lana responded, as she watched a bright yellow fish disappear into a bunch of seaweed, only to burst out the other side a moment later with a tiny crustacean in its mouth. “The other strike teams are making good progress, and Kayora’s team looks to have a lead on where we might find Revan.” A gloved hand sliding over her own drew Lana’s attention, and she turned to face Vera and found the Chiss gazing at her with an uncharacteristically somber look on her face. “What is it?”

As if she’d flipped a switch, the somber expression was gone, replaced with a lazy smile. “Just weighing my options.”

Lana arched an eyebrow. “What options?”

The smile stretched into a wider grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Rolling her eyes, Lana angled her body toward Vera a little more. “Yes I would, that’s why I asked.”

Rather than responding, Vera pitched forward, placing her hands on Lana’s shoulders and pushing her onto the rock. Disarmingly quickly, Vera had swung her leg over Lana’s waist, and was now hovering above the Sith, both hands having slid up to grab Lana’s wrists and hold them over her head. Almost unconsciously Lana tilted her head up, looking for Vera’s lips as a fire burst to life inside her. To her surprise, Vera kept far enough away that Lana was forced to return, laying her head against the smooth rock as she looked up at her lover.

Red eyes stared back at her, a torrent of love and lust swirling in their crimson depths. Lana felt a sudden rush of emotion as Vera leaned down slowly, slowly, and oh so gently pressed their lips together. The tenderness of the moment caught Lana off guard so much it took a second before she was even able to respond, but then she was reciprocating the kiss, keeping the gentle intention that Vera had initiated. Their lips shifted, slotting together like they were cast from the same mold. A featherlight touch from Vera’s tongue and Lana parted her lips, permitting access. As Vera’s tongue slipped into Lana’s mouth, her grip on Lana’s wrists loosened, and the blonde used the opportunity to bring her hands down, tangling her fingers in the loose bun at the back of Vera’s head. She pulled the Chiss woman closer as their tongues danced together, twirling around each other as if perfectly rehearsed.

Lana lost track of time, fully immersed in kissing Vera, determined to wring as much pleasure out of the few moments they had before they would inevitably be called back for the final push. She believed they would succeed, that they would stop Revan from accomplishing his goal and stave off galactic destruction for the moment. Yet she would be naive to ignore the fact that there was a real chance that not all of them would survive the encounter. There was a real chance that this would be the last time she’d be with Vera.

Fueled by these spiraling thoughts, Lana did everything she could to pour her heart out through her lips, her hands, her entire being. Though they’d both admitted their love for one another, she wanted to be certain that Vera truly understood how thoroughly she’d cemented a place in Lana’s heart.

And so she pulled Vera down, held her close and ran her fingers through strands of black hair as she kissed the woman she loved fiercely. The kiss stayed unhurried, a marked change from their usual make-out sessions that were known for their intensity and often sloppiness. It wasn’t often that the two of them shared such a tender moment, but in the current circumstances, it was exactly what Lana needed.

After a short while, Vera pulled away, a few stray hairs falling across her face. Lana reached up to brush them away and found her hand tracing down Vera’s cheek before reaching the rough scar tissue that stretched from the right corner of her mouth down toward her jawline. Fingers dancing along the imperfections, Lana shifted her gaze to the Chiss above her.

“What happened?”

Vera smirked, and Lana felt the scar stretch with the expression. “From my early bounty hunting days.” Even without pupils, Lana noticed that Vera’s focus flicked away for a moment before returning.

“Tell me?”

“I promise it’s not as enthralling as you think it is,” Vera protested, but her resistance wilted under Lana’s adoring eyes. “Alright, fine. In one of the first crews that I was a part of, I was little more than a hired gun. I didn’t have a lot of clout, and even though I could drop a running target at 200 meters, that didn’t get me much more than a slightly larger cut of the loot.

“The leader of the crew was this human named Favran, a real sociopathic fucker, which didn’t bother me that much since we were usually being hired to take out other sociopathic fuckers. One mission, we had to meet up with a local contact, which was unusual for the jobs we took. So we meet with this contact, who ends up being this Nautolan kid. She’s obviously terrified, but she gives us the information we need, all the while shaking like a leaf. The rest of us turned to go, but I noticed that Favran hadn’t moved and was just staring at this kid.

“I was about to ask him what he was doing when I saw him pull a blade out. I grabbed his wrist and told him we had what we needed, and to leave the kid alone.” Vera chewed on her lip a moment as she remembered back to the events of that day. “Needless to say, he didn’t like that. Whether it was being questioned by one of his underlings, or the fact that I was an alien, well, it didn’t much matter. He turned the blade on me instead. I wasn’t quite fast enough.”

Lana felt her fingers trembling as she once again traced the scar. “And Favran?”

Vera grinned. “He was even slower than me. And that’s how I ended up leading my first bounty hunting crew.”

Though she was pleased that Favran had gotten his, Lana was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to exact her own justice on the man. “Nobody else in the crew challenged you?”

“I think after they saw me shatter his wrist and then plunge his own knife through his trachea, they decided to keep their mouths shut.”

“Probably a wise decision.”

A chime from Lana’s comm was quickly followed by a chime from Vera’s. Assuming that meant only one thing, their hunches were confirmed as they read over the message. Quickly gathering up their belongings they made their way to the edge of the clearing back where Lana had entered. Right before she reached the trees, Lana felt strong fingers wrap around her wrist and pull her back into one more passionate kiss. It was over far too soon, and Lana watched those delicious lips disappear behind a mirrored visor.

This would all be over soon, one way or another, she thought as they started their trek back to camp. She could only hope that it wouldn’t end in heartbreak for either one of them.