Screaming like a stuck mynock.

"So, that there is the target," Atton says.

They left the bar a couple of hours ago. Atton bought Sam something to eat before ushering him to a high cliff looking over the colony - and the big grey and brown tower in the distance.

"S'a laboratory sort of thing. Does experiments into hyperspace and space distortion. S'heavily guarded and all."

When the morning comes, Atton's gone, but there are two rather ragged and thin looking pirates poking Will with their feet.

"Get up," one says (he's very shrill). "You're to report to the quartermaster, down on deck four."

On the edge of known space, a space station drifts sedately around a green-blue gas giant, flickering with tiny lights.

Nearby, there's a flash, as a large, grey ship, battered and patched up, exits hyperspace, heading for the station.

On board the station, as a puff of purple flame deposits Will in a storage cupboard, an alarm starts blaring.

Koren stares out at the distant sea of rubble around Onderon, and amongst it the swarms of tiny lights moving towards his fleet.

“My lord,” a voice drifts over from one side, “our weapons are ready. We can destroy the rubble and move through towards Onderon.”

“No.” Koren flicks one hand up, drawing up a closer display of the objects moving through the rubble. The red and whites of Republic fighters are mixed in with the blues and golds of the Onderon guard and the silvers of the Basilisk war droids. “To do so might push the rubble towards the planet and the moon. I want the palace and the tomb to be structurally unharmed.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his advisor bow low.

“This is only a minor inconvenience,” he continues. “The remains of a shattered fleet are not going to stop us. Dispatch fighters and dropships.”

-----

There are thousands of fighters, flooding out of the Wyrm. We’re outnumbered ten to one. We’re making a dent in their numbers, but there are too many for us to keep them all out. The dropships are - ...”

-----

A dropship crashes down into the city square, hatches opening to admit a stream of armoured soldiers, guns raised and firing as the nearby turrets swung towards them. With a shriek, one soldier falls, armour falling apart around him.

Behind them, the dropship clanks, casting off its outer shell to reveal a crab-like war machine beneath. It growls mechanically, legs sliding out as it lifts itself up and started walking, guns sliding out. With a hum and a crash, the main gun fires, lighting up the city as it blows through a building, sending turrets flying and crackling.

The march continues on towards the Sky Ramp, blocked by a row of shiny, silver droids. As they turn and started firing, the soldiers hurry away, ducking behind buildings as the war machine points its main gun at them with a long hum.

As the droids go flying and clattering, another dropship hist the city, and a third.

-----

Atton taps his earpiece again.
“They’ve breached the Sky Ramp,” to Will and Guppy. “Be ready.”

When the Dragonfly jumps out of hyperspace at Onderon, its inhabitants are met with the sight of a lot of wreckage.

There are ruined Republic ships and ruined Sith ships, floating around in pieces of varying size. There's no sign, however, of any current battle.

"Maybe we were too late," Atton mumbles, tapping a few keys. An image of a woman in a dress and shawl appears. "Or not."

"Only one ship and three people? We had hoped for an army."

"Maybe one will turn up later. What happened?"

"The Sith retreated. They have offered us a day to surrender, or make preparations for another attack."

"Oh. That's - that's quite nice of them, actually. Cuddly."

When the music fades and the lights come back on, the orange-and-white room has been replaced with the interiors of their pods.

As the pods open, there are a lot of confused noises from the people nearby, as across the Hub, every pod opens and shuts down.

Atton grumbles something, hopping out of his pod and shaking himself down.

When they reach the entrance to the cave, there's something blocking it.

It looks like a giant mechanical man, covered with guns and gears and chimneys, and all in not-quite-right shades of green, pink, white and black. There are streams of code coming from the chimneys.

"That can't be good," Atton mumbles.

They found a nice tavern, with a tavernkeeper (strangely overly chirpy and always smiling, with just the barest hints of murderous insanity in her eyes) who agreed to let them pay later.

Paying is still a problem, though, which is why Atton's found a wide grassy area - some sort of park that also acts as a market.

"S'a good spot."

When Atton opens his eyes, he hasn't got his sword, and he's wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a billowing coat, and a whole lot of black.

Thoughtfully: "Huh."

They're in a garden of some sort, filled with statues, fountains, and plants, with a forest and a massive city in the distance. A lot of people are milling around, all in dress from a variety of different time periods.

Atton thinks about this, a moment.

"Huh."

The door swings open to let Guppy and Will out, closing and fading away as soon as they're through.

Khoonda and the ship aren't far away. The landing area is just visible over the tops of some of the trees.