Chapter 2: Into the Clouds
Bespin (star chart coordinate: K-18) is a beautiful gas giant in the Outer Rim—soft, pastel cloud bands rolling around a world of endless sky.
Suspended high within those layers hangs an aerial city—Cloud City.
That was the destination Max Vizsla's Mandalorians had chosen.
In the stories people tell across the galaxy, Cloud City is a famous name. It was here that Luke Skywalker dueled Darth Vader, proved himself the rightful heir to the proud tradition of getting a hand chopped off, and heard one of the most infamous lines ever spoken: "I am your father."
But in the real galaxy—right now—Cloud City was still just a remote, obscure settlement in the Outer Rim.
Since its early days under Corellian patronage, it had functioned as a tibanna-gas collection and refining facility—limited output, quiet traffic, the kind of place that stayed off the major powers' maps unless they had a reason to look.
That suited Max perfectly.
He wanted to take this place, keep it quiet, and build strength under the cover of "protection."
"Dragonfang One reporting: Dragonfang Team has secured the communications center. We control inbound and outbound comms for Cloud City. No casualties."
"Mythosaur copies. Transmit to Dragon's Nest immediately. Guide Shriekhawk Squadron to launch and lock down the airspace."
"Dragonfang One copies."
…
"Dragonclaw One reporting: Dragonclaw Team has secured the power center. We control the tractor-beam projector and the repulsorlift generators. No casualties."
…
"Dragonhorn One reporting: Dragonhorn Team has secured the administrative center and 'rescued' the Cloud City administrator team. Two light injuries in the squad. No serious injuries, no deaths."
…
"Commander," the newcomer said, helping Max remove his VR rig while giving the report, "this exercise took one hour and twenty-two minutes standard time. New fastest record."
(One hour and twenty-two minutes… that number feels cursed.) Max pulled off the headset and nodded once. "Good. Run it a few more times. If we can reliably seize the city in under one hour and thirty minutes, then we move."
Max's "refugee fleet" didn't have large capital ships. Their biggest military craft was a Kom'rk-class Mark I fighter/transport, sixty-eight meters long. Their largest civilian ship was a ninety-meter GR-75 medium transport—and they had exactly two of those.
There simply wasn't room to build full physical mock-ups of Cloud City's key facilities and institutions.
So he did the next best thing: VR simulation drills, run until everyone could do the job half-asleep.
Before the main fleet ever departed Concordia, Max had already sent reconnaissance teams ahead. Using miniature spy drones, they infiltrated Cloud City and conducted two full months of detailed surveillance, producing an accurate 3D structural map of the city.
After the fleet reached the Outer Rim, they didn't go straight to Bespin. They hid in an asteroid field and began day after day of simulated "take-the-city" drills.
Another month passed. The time had come to test the results.
VR wasn't real combat. But it didn't dent Max's confidence, because when he pictured the operation ahead… he didn't feel that cold warning in his gut.
Ready to move—that was the confidence of someone who had an edge.
Yes. Max was Force-sensitive—an extremely rare trait for a Mandalorian.
He'd been born with it, but never recognized it for what it was. Those hazy flashes of danger he felt in battle had been mistaken for nothing more than a warrior's instinct.
After arriving here, he'd dreamed of wielding a lightsaber like every other fool who grew up on legends, and he became convinced that his "danger sense" was precognitive Force sensitivity.
Before long, he proved it—moving objects without touching them. He really was Force-sensitive.
But there were problems: no teacher, and nonstop fighting left him no time to train. Over those three years, his control of the Force had improved only marginally.
A Jedi or Sith who truly masters the Force can read the line of incoming blasterfire and place a blade where it needs to be—block, deflect, redirect. The best of them make it look effortless.
Max couldn't.
In the same situation, he got only a rough directional warning—then he dodged, or trusted his shield, or let beskar do what beskar does.
Of course, that might not be only because he hadn't trained enough. There was another possibility: maybe his raw talent just wasn't that high.
Max—who carried a protagonist's dream in his heart—didn't want to think about that. Or accept it.
Either way, whether your advantage is "good" is one question. Whether you have any advantage at all is another.
This faction clung to warrior honor, and the more important and dangerous the operation, the more they insisted the leader stand in front—so the leader died first.
If it weren't for that, the seat at the top would never have fallen into Max's hands.
He'd been in the job for over half a year and still hadn't gotten himself killed.
In a sense, that alone proved how useful the Force really was.
And now, he was about to lead from the front again.
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Galactic Standard Calendar, Year 3, 23:00 on October 13.
Near Bespin, a GR-75 medium transport suddenly dropped out of hyperspace and dove toward Cloud City.
"Administrator, emergency situation. A cargo vessel is requesting an emergency landing at Cloud City. The request has been forwarded to your terminal."
"A lightly armed GR-75, equipped with four light twin laser cannons… encountered hyperspace turbulence. Hyperdrive and flight control systems damaged. It needs an emergency landing for repairs…"
The newly appointed Cloud City administrator, Billy Williams, stared at the terminal without blinking and asked his protocol-assistant droid over his shoulder, "C-3PV, check the records. Any similar cases?"
"Administrator, Bespin lies along a major trade route. Over the past three hundred years, incidents of this type—ships forced to land at Cloud City due to hyperspace accidents—have occurred many times. The most recent was in 13 BrS, and the one before that was—"
"Enough. Shut up." Billy Williams slapped his palm down and sprang to his feet, excited. Administrative work at a tibanna gas facility was mind-numbing; anything unexpected was at least a little fresh.
"Communications center, this is Administrator Billy Williams. Transmit to the distressed vessel: landing permission granted. Order the ship to power down its deflector shields immediately and accept our supervision."
"Yes, Administrator. Communications center copies."
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PS: Mythosaurs are enormous beasts tied to Mandalorian history and symbolism.
PPS: Some dating systems use a "Great ReSynchronization" as a calendar zero-point (often cited as 35 BBY). Years before it are sometimes marked as BrS ("Before ReSynchronization"), while years after use the plain year number. For example: three years before is written as 3 BrS, while three years after is written as Year 3.