Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 36

"No luck with this one either?" Nym called up with a frown, muscled arms crossed over his chest.

"We're not exactly engineers," one of the Meres called from on top of a droid tank. "We can drive these things, but don't expect us to fix them."

"Great," Nym grumbled, scowling towards the hill, and the city that was beyond it.

He had hoped that they could help deal with the remaining droids, but they couldn't get in range without the droids potentially turning around and marching on them. And they'd be caught out in the open with very little cover to work with, a perfect killing ground for the droids.

So of course his first and best hope was to see if any of the AATs could still be useable.

But as smoke fumed out of the tank and a Mere lunged out of it with a coughing fit, that hope was quickly dying out.

"We could always take some of those riding beasts," the Mere suggested. "Go around the droids, get into the city and link up with Sixxa."

"That's assuming that the Gungans are willing to give up more of those things," Nym retorted with a scowl. "Besides, we'd have to double back all the way to their Boss's camp and then ride out. We'd probably make it to the city on foot by the time we might make it with those things."

The Mere made a growling sound, one Nym had learned meant they were thinking, not trying to intimidate someone.

"There-" the Mere in the tank said, pausing to cough half of his respiratory system out. "-is another idea."

"I'm listening," Nym grunted.

"We-gack!- follow the droids. Don't shoot. Just tail them. To the city. Get cover. Shoot them from behind," the Mere explained between breaths and coughs.

"We stick out of range, they'll never notice," the first Mere agreed, patting his comrade on the back.

Nym hummed. It wasn't a great plan, but it wasn't horrible. Droids were stupid enough that they could be tailed for miles without noticing. "Alright, we're doing that," Nym agreed, frowning as the Mere kept coughing. "You stay here."

"I'm fine," the Mere protested.

"I'm all for some bravado, but Sixxa might try to shoot me if I made one of his soldiers die from breathing in too much smoke," Nym remarked with a smirk.

"No, he'd try to drown you."

Meanwhile

"Here, here, stop here," Sixxa ordered with a grunt.

"The archway?" one of the soldiers asked, looking up at the stone structure.

"Good a cover as any," Sixxa said. "This will probably sound horrible, but I'm used to fighting in places with a bit more collateral damage to use as cover."

None of them responded to that rather morbid notion.

"Okay, you two," he said, looking to the two without sniper rifles. "You go with the one in the hovercraft. Find out where everyone else is, and let them know the rest of the droids are here. They'll swarm blast over anyone they catch off guard."

"What about you three, Sir?" one of them asked in concern.

"We have enough alleys and streets that we can run off before they get too close," Sixxa assured.

There was a brief pause before the hovercraft fired the mounted gun on its front, blasting down at the droids. With that, it turned and left with the soldiers on top of it.

"What was that all about?" Sixxa asked in surprise.

"I think he just wanted to shoot the thing once, Sir," his sniping companion said with a small smile.