Kenari is a fairly obscure planet that few had ever heard of. The planet was long abandoned after being labeled as toxic due to an Imperial Mining Incident, which is why the Covenant was able to remain hidden as long as it has. The Planet's only inhabitants are the native tribes that live simple, nomadic lifestyles compared to the rest of the known galaxy. Kenari is most notably the homeworld of Cassian Andor.

The Covenant remains hidden amongst the planet's abandoned mines, within a canyon that had fortunately kept it from sight from would-be thieves and looters.Tunnels from the nearby mines act as shortcuts to the fallen ship. The upper hull of the Covenant* has been breached, granting easy access for those with the means, or willpower, to do so. Rainfall has dulled and rusted the surface of the ship, making certain walkways flimsy and dangerous to travel.

With few venturing out due to the danger. Members of Clan Plagueis and Clan Taldryan have been tasked with infiltrating the abandoned Venator to retrieve a most vital artefact that was codenamed: The Ark.

However, what stands in the way are members of the opposing Clan. The ship and the area around it have been designated as a free-fire zone by both the Taldryan Supreme Chancellor and Plagueis Dread Lord, with those entering it doing so at their own risk, as a work around to the non-aggression pact signed by both leaders in the Canto Bight Accords. This makes The Covenant a hostile battleground, both inside and out. Although it has certainly seen better days, The Covenant is a true testament to the might of a Republic from over half a century ago.

Maybe I should have stayed home on Chyron.

“Keep up, Deez.” Aylin Sajark’s tone was compassionate but the hint of exasperation in her voice wasn’t lost on Deezn Jarok even as he fought tooth and nail to maintain his composure. Alas, he’d lost the battle before it had even begun. He sneezed, the sharp convulsion kicking a cloud of dust from his poncho as the sound of his detonation bounced from wall to wall down the mining tunnel. Scrubbing his snout with the back of his hand, he grinned up at his Nautolan companion but his smile dropped instantly. There was no humor in her dark, reflective eyes. His stare retreated to the suddenly interesting cake of mud on his boots. When Aylin Sajark, of all people, lost her patience, you knew you had messed up.

“Uh, sorry,” he said as he attempted to scrub the dirt from his shoulders, “This place is, uh, dusty.”

“Do you know how old these tunnels are?” she asked.

“Very?”

“You got that right. Try not to get us buried down here, will you?”

Being reminded of the precarious condition of the mines was enough to inject some much needed speed into Deezn’s step. He double-timed it, catching up to Aylin in a half a dozen strides. He tried to pass her by, if only to show he could do better, but her hand clutched his shoulder, stopping him. She wagged a finger in his green face as she spoke.

“I’m serious, Deez.” She certainly looked serious. “The mines are the least of our worries. You’ve never faced other people from the Brotherhood before. If you think the Collective was bad, you’ve seen nothing. Not all the clans are like Taldryan. You’ve never faced a Dark Jedi before. Trust me, you don’t want to.”

Deezn’s black eyes seemed ready to pop. He swallowed hard, wringing his hands to stop them from shaking. He couldn’t decide what scared him more. This talk of Dark Jedi or seeing Aylin in such a state. She was usually the laid back, easy going one.

“I will be careful,” he said, his voice breaking as he spoke.

They pushed down the tunnels in silence, Deezn sticking to Aylin’s heels as they moved even if his legs were growing heavier with every step. It had been hours since they’d entered the mining complex and they’d been walking ever since, following old Imperial schematics that dated back to the time of the Galactic Civil War. It was all that the Taldryan shot callers had to offer. At first, it felt no different than navigating the lower levels of Chyron, but by now he’d lost all sense of direction. Ramp up, ramp down, left, right, every tunnel, every bend, looked the same. He was ready to declare themselves lost when they rounded yet another corner and a sliver of white light appeared.

“Finally,” he said, louder than he meant to. He picked up the pace, jogging now as he pushed past Aylin. As he neared the exit, his wrist link crackled and chirped, stopping him in his tracks. He brought the communications device up to his lips as he said, “Decoy?”

Sure enough, the recon droid’s sarcastic whine came through the speaker. No, it’s the Emperor, it answered in binary. With the obligatory quips out of its system, D3C0Y moved on to business. I am at the site of the Covenant.

“Excellent,” Aylin appeared at Deezn’s side, grabbing his wrist and lifting up to her lips so she could speak directly with the droid, “We’re about to come out on the canyon.”

It’s about time. Plagueis beat you to it.

“Pfassk,” Deezn moaned. Aylin pressed a hand to his snout to silence him.

“Decoy, what do you see?”

The droid, ever the type to elaborate and go into details, answered: a lot of battle droids.

This, at least, was good news. With some luck, Selika Roh would have sent droids to do her dirty work for her and they could avoid the more dangerous threats amongst her ranks. Maybe they really hate dust, he thought as he fought back another sneeze. He sure hated it.

“Keep us updated,” Aylin said, dropping Deezn’s wrist as she moved towards the exit. He followed suit.

Just as they had planned, the pair came out in the shadow of the Covenant. The Venator-class star destroyer was a sight to behold, its titanesque triangular hull stretching onto the distance above them, the rays of the noon sun crowning its edges, nearly blinding Deezn. He had seen a thousand star destroyers in holovids, flown against them in countless flight simulations, but none of it had prepared him for such a sight. Despite the weather-worn exterior, the rust and the faded paint, this vestige of the Clone Wars was nothing short of majestic. Deezn could have wept if it wasn’t for the clunking of droid feet battering the ground nearby. He grabbed Aylin by the arm and pulled her into cover behind an outcropping in the rock as a battalion of battle droids appeared behind them in the distance.

“Think they saw us?” Aylin asked.

“Don’t think so. Not taking any chances though,” he answered as he tugged his blaster free from its holster.

“Let’s wait them out.”

He nodded. He wished that someone like Zen’trula was there with them. The Twi’lek general and his crew would have made short work of the droids. In all likelihood, they could have stormed the Covenant head-on and shot their way out carrying this so-called Ark artifact on their backs. He imagined that Taldryan Command had elected to keep the good general on stand-by should things get out of hand with Clan Plagueis. He couldn’t blame them. Deezn didn’t know much about politics and even less about accords, but it sure seemed like bantha poodoo was about to hit the reactor.

Lucky for them, the battle droids marched by unaware, their feet hammering at the soil, a veil of dust rising in their wake. Deezn peeked out of cover and watched them disappear down the canyon. They looked like any other ridiculous, flimsy battle droid he’d seen in documentaries about the Clone Wars, except that they looked fresh out of a factory and wore Plagueis markings. It was their harmless appearance, so difficult to take seriously, that made his skin crawl. These droids or others like them had spread wanton murder across the galaxy for years. Unlike the stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire or the soldiers of the Iron Legion, these were indiscriminate killing machines devoid of emotion and any notion of morality. Life meant entirely nothing to them. Somehow, this made him angry.

Aylin tapped his shoulder, jerking his mind back to the task at hand. She pointed upwards at the Covenant and he knew what he had to do. He grabbed the grappling hook from his belt, squinted as he aimed it upwards at the star destroyer, then pulled the trigger. The hook shot up through the air with a swish, the cord unspooling behind it as it soared and disappeared over the ship’s edge. After a moment, he gave the rope a tug and, satisfied it would hold his weight, he clipped the device to his utility belt and activated the winding mechanism. He was pulled up into the air.

Aylin shot past him, the jetpack thrusters attached to her boots hissing. Deezn winced at the noise. He hoped that the droids would not hear her, though it was hard to argue with her methods. She reached the top of the Covenant before he’d made it halfway up.

I’ve got to get me a pair of those.

If all went as planned, once he reached the top, they should be able to slip into the star destroyer through one of the breaches in the upper hull, hopefully without detection.

Aylin was crawling over the top of the Destroyer to get to one of the breaches that would give them entrance into the ship. When she found one large enough, she waved Deezn over before lowering herself through the opening. She slid to the wall as floor was slightly slanted over. She looked around to see if there was any activity near them. So far, she saw nothing and looked up were Deezn was getting through the hole, who slid down next to her.

“So far there is no activity here,” she whispered to him.

“Good, don’t want to be seen.” He whispered back as he frowned at the darkness.

They both made way towards the aft of the ship. They were in search of the artefact. No one knew the location of it, just that it was supposed to be here, somewhere.

“How do you know which way to go?” Deezn asked after they have been doing for a few minutes.

“I don’t,” the Nautolan said with a shrug, “Usually luck leads me there, or something big and bad chases us into the right direction.”

“B-big and bad?” the Rodian gulped.

She smiled and nodded, “Yup.”

He glanced back, a worried look on his snout. Aylin didn’t wait though and moved further, walking half on the wall and the floor until she spotted a door that said “Science Room, stay out”

“Deezn!” she hissed towards him, not wanting to yell. It was enough to get him out of his thoughts and he quickly got over to her.

“You think it will be here?”

“We can always take a look, perhaps it’s here and else we might find other interesting stuff.”

He nodded slightly as he grabbed one side of the doors and Aylin the other. Both of them pulled hard and with some effort the doors slid open. When they looked inside they saw all kind of stuff bunched up against the far wall. As well as some corrosive stuff that had slowly eaten through the deck plates towards the room below it.

“Are you-“ Deezn didn’t get the time to finish his sentence as Aylin slid past him into the room and began to search through the parts and pieces of the room. He shook his head and looked down the hallway again. That is when he heard footsteps, marching footsteps. Quickly he let himself slide towards her.

“Don’t want to hurry you or anything, but the droids are coming,” he whispered hurriedly.

“Already?” Aylin asked as she popped up from between boxes.

He nodded as he searched for a way out of this probable deathtrap. Aylin was now also looking for a way out as she tucked away some tools, both looking at the corroded hole at the same time. Getting close to it, Aylin frowned.

“Risky… but it seems that most of the liquid has been neutralized over time.”

“Better make a choice now, they are getting close.”

Hoping on her luck she jumped down the hole and landed on the floor below, who almost gave way under the sudden weight. As Deezn followed her example the floor gave way completely and they both tumbled another floor lower.

There was a sickening sound as a piece of steel pierced the Nautolan's upper leg. Aylin wanted to yell, but her mouth was quickly covered by Deezn’s hand in a reflex. This hurt more then anything she had experienced before.

“Ssh!” The Rodian warned her as he looked up and tried to listen for any sounds. It remained quiet for now, which he didn’t like at all.

Aylin was half in panic as she tried to get the piece of steel out of her leg. Biting down on her lip to try to keep from screaming again. They had to get moving or they would surely be found by the droids and then it would be bye-bye.

“Get me some bandages or something,” Aylin hissed between clenched teeth, “We need to secure this so that we can go.”

The sight of Aylin’s blood, the imminent danger, the oppressive darkness of the Covenant, Deezn was having trouble processing it all. His round, black eyes moved from Aylin to the door back to Aylin then back to the door again. All he wanted to do was run. Run and scream, to be more specific. He didn’t know the first thing about tending wounds. He didn’t even know where to start looking for blasted bandages. If he went searching for them, would the droids find Aylin? How much time did they have? What was happening? Oh so much blood.

He hated blood.

Aylin’s stifled whimpers brought his mind reeling back to the moment. His stomach lurched and he spewed the contents of guts all over his boots to the sound of Aylin cursing his sorry hide. His head threatening to explode, he tried to dab the flecks of vomit from his snout with the edge of his poncho.

That’s it. The poncho!

He threw it over his head and slipped it off from his shoulders in one fell swoop. He tried to rip it with his bare hands but he wasn’t strong enough for such durable fabric. Looking around, he saw the pointed piece of metal jutting from Aylin’s leg and it gave him an idea. There was plenty of razor-sharp, jagged metal around. Using what was available Deezn sliced the poncho into strips, then dropped to his knees by Aylin’s side.

“Uh, what do I do now?” he asked.

“I, I don’t know,” she squealed through the tears.

“Pfassk,” Deezn cursed. He placed both hands around Aylin’s wounded leg. “Uh, if you bleed out and die, don’t kill me.”

“Wh-what?”

He yanked her leg upwards with sudden force, ripping it free from the piece of metal. Blood sprayed over his face and Aylin yowled so loud the scream still rang in his ears after she passed out.

“Pfassk, pfassk, pfassk, pfassk,” he hissed through clenched teeth over and over again as he set about wrapping Aylin’s gushing leg with strips of his former poncho. There was so much blood it got to a point where everything slipped. He wiped his hands on his trousers and tried again. He didn’t know a blasted thing about medicine but he found himself thinking about a leaking fuel line on a freighter. The first thing one had to do to stop a leak was to shut off the main valve.

“No valves,” he said to himself. “E chu ta, think, sleemo, think.”

When one couldn’t reach a valve, one clamped the fuel line. He looked at the bloody mess, his mind screaming as it worked double time. He curled his snout as his stomach lurched again but this time he swallowed hard. Clamp the fuel line. He knew what he had to do.

“Oh this is gonna hurt,” he whimpered. He grabbed two strips from his poncho, tied them together then tested the knot. Satisfied it’d hold, he slipped it under Aylin’s leg high above the thigh, then tied the two extremities together, pulling it real tight around her leg until his arms were shaking from exertion. He fastened a knot then fell back on his hands, panting and whimpering. Aylin’s leg was drenched in blood and he had no idea if what he’d done even worked. At this point, he’d done all he could think of doing. They had to get out of there.

“The scream came from down there,” said a robotic voice from the hole overhead.

“That’s a long drop, sir,” answered another. There was a moment of silence.

“So, go check it out,” the first voice said.

“Roger, roger,” said the second. Then there was a scream and a battle droid fell crashing to the ground near Aylin, legs snapping beneath it in a shower of sparks. “Found them.”

Deezn moved from instinct alone, pulling his blaster out and shooting the half-crushed robot point blank. Its long cylindrical head exploded halfway through saying, “You’re under arrest.”

Deezn jumped to his feet, his boots slipping on Aylin’s blood. Thankfully, he managed to stay upright. He then bent down and struggled to hoist his unconscious companion over his shoulders. He was wobbly for the first few steps, trying to shift Aylin’s weight on his back so he could maintain his balance as he walked. There was little chance the other droids would jump down after what happened to their companion, but he wasn’t willing to bet his life on it. They’d be looking for another way down. He needed to start looking for a way out, blast the mission.

He set out through the shadows of the Covenant with one arm wrapped around his partner’s waist and the other clenching his blaster. He moved as quietly as he could, though he had to admit it wasn’t quiet at all, what with his constant grunting and Aylin’s feverish moans.

Dead yet? D3C0Y quipped through his wrist link. Ship inbound.

“Ship? What ship?” Deezn asked.

Reinforcements.

Deezn caught himself smiling. Finally, some good news. He wondered what mission parameters could have changed to set the Taldryan machine moving. Whatever it was, he wasn’t about to complain about it. He asked into the communications device, “Is it General Zen’trula?”

Plagueis reinforcements, laserbrain. Not droids. Soldiers. There’s a Mandalorian. Red armor.

Deezn moaned, the sound of his hopes and dreams deflating. He redoubled his speed, erring through the corridors without bearings until chance finally smiled upon them when they burst into the medical bay. He laid Aylin down on what he thought was an operation table and set about rummaging through the chamber. The Covenant had been well stocked with medical supplies and the search quickly yielded all the goods he thought a doctor might need to help Aylin. The problem was he was no doctor. He didn’t have the first clue what to do with most of this stuff. There were canisters of what had to be Bacta gel which he’d seen Bale Andros use after he’d been wounded during the battle of Arx. Sadly, he hadn’t the faintest clue how they worked or what they really did. Maybe Aylin would.

And so he did the best he could and jabbed her with a stim pack. She woke up gasping, dark eyes wide with all the emotions this side of fear and confusion. Then the pain clearly set in as she clenched her entire face and made a long-drawn sound somewhere between a squeal and a groan. Deezn put a hand on her shoulder, patting her, not knowing what else to do.

“I, uh. I tried,” he said, unsure what else he could say.

A distant, heavy thud came from the corridor. Deezn’s eyes went to the doorway. Then he looked back at Aylin.

“You need to hide,” he said.

“What?” she asked, clearly confused.

“Do as I say,” he insisted. “I know you’re in pain, but go. Now. Hide. Then you need to find a way off this ship.”

“But, the mission?”

“Blast the mission,” he snapped as he unhooked the fragmentation grenade from her belt.

Her eyes went wide with realization, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to draw them away.”

And with that, he left the room, walking back in the direction from which they previously came, blaster in one hand, grenade bouncing in the other. It wasn’t long until Clan Plagueis found him.

“There he is,” announced a droid.

There were seven droids but it was the people standing behind the droids that caught Deezn’s attention. He didn’t recognize any of them but they came in all shapes and sizes, forming an imposing group. A group that wanted him dead.

“Blast him,” said the same droid.

Deezn broke into a run down a side corridor, shooting and screaming over his shoulder, trying to make as much noise as he could to make sure he had their full attention. They followed, their blaster bolts exploding all around him. He’d never run this fast before, not in his entire life. Whatever drove him, it gave him hope. Hope for Aylin, hope for himself. He rounded a corner, slammed into the wall then pushed off and kept moving. As he did so, he pressed his thumb down on the fragmentation grenade, held it there until the device bleeped. The enemy troops materialized into view around the bend. He tossed the explosive their way.

He ran and ran and ran, wheezing, his lungs on fire. The explosion rocked the hallway, tossing him off his feet, sending him sliding onto his knees, but the adrenaline urged him up and onwards. He needed to lose them. Once he did, he could circle back to Aylin. She wouldn’t have to be alone. He could save her. They could sneak off the ship undetected.

He brought his wrist link up as he carried on down the hall, “Decoy, ping Taldryan Command, we need reinforcements. Aylin and I will need a pick u—”

He screeched to a halt.

Before him, not six paces down the hall, red armor glimmering in the darkness, stood the Mandalorian warrior the recon droid had mentioned. The man wasn’t particularly tall but he was imposing in a way that few were, his sheer presence emanating a power that Deezn couldn’t begin to comprehend. The man said nothing as he lumbered toward him, his armored boots clanking and thumping against the durasteel floor, the sound reverberating along the walls. The closer he drew, it was as if the corridor itself was closing in on Deezn. He found that he couldn’t breathe. Again, the man said nothing as he ignited his crimson lightsaber, its light shining like a sun in his visor.

I should have stayed home on Chyron.

Finally, the man said nothing as his lightsaber bit into Deezn’s shoulder, bisecting him across the chest.

Aylin did not like it one bit that she was left alone in the room with her leg tied off to stop the bleeding. She had wanted to go with Deezn to get out of here. The others were no match for them, let alone when you went out alone.

She listened to the distant sounds of footsteps marching through the hallway. She had to get the hell out of here, or Deezn’s diversion would have been for nothing. Climbing to her feet, she winced hard, but tried to keep from making noise. Hobbling over towards the door she glanced outside and when she saw nothing in the direction Deezn went, she went in the other direction.

The footsteps seemed to follow her and she gulped. Doing her best to speed up, she rounded another corner. Luckily it was empty so she moved as fast as her leg would let her.

Aylin came the inquisitive voice of Decoy, I can’t reach Deezn

She grabbed her comm and tried her best to keep an even voice, “Something bad happened. I’m trying to find my way out. Get Zen’trula here to get us out.”

I will get the Chin Decoy replied and closed the connection.

Aylin shook her head as she kept pushing herself on, tears running down her cheeks and not just because of the pain in her leg.

Aylin and Deezn both knew it would be difficult, but she didn’t think they would run out of luck this fast. She rounded another corner and nearly ran into a troupe of droids

“Frack…”

“There is the intruder!” One of the droids said as the group turned around in unison.

“Get her!”

Aylin stumbled back as she grabbed her ion grenade from her belt and pressed the button to activate it. Waiting a few seconds before throwing it at the droids. It rolled between their feet before it exploded, releasing its ionizing contents and rendering the droids useless.

Hissing in pain she pushed on over the fallen droids in the hopes of finding an exit close by. Getting on she ended up in a large stocking area, loaded with crates and drums of whatever they were transporting. Her hopes grew a little because that might mean that there was a way out of here.

She went towards the crates and looked around in a hurry to find a hatch or anything that could open towards the outside. There was a double beep on her datapad that signaled a message had been received.

Reading it her frown turned into a smile. Help was on the way. Now she only had to hold out long enough to be rescued. As she sighed her eyes drifted to the floor. When she looked better at it she saw the marks of droid wheels running the same track over and over. Following the tracks she came to a loading floor, but there was a crate blocking it. She giggled softly, freedom was close, but then her heart sank when she heard slow deliberate footsteps getting closer.

Pushing with all her might she tried to get the crate to move. Finally it gave way a little, but it also made her makeshift tourniquet slip and blood started flowing again.

No.. no no no no! she was screaming at herself and tried to tie off her leg again, but the strips of fabric had gotten slippery.

The Chin arrived, get yourself out. Decoy said over the comm.

“I’m trying!” she hissed, hoping the bandage would stay a little longer now.

She crawled over towards the consoles, they were flickering, but still active. That was when the Red Mandalorian showed up in the doorway. Glancing towards the door, her heart sank even further, she had seen him before. She slammed onto the console to open the hatch and crawled towards it. It stopped working when she got close to it and a look of terror came over her face.

I’m dead! she thought as the Mandalorian ran at her and ignited his lightsaber.

In panic she threw her flash grenade at him. It exploded in a bright flash and loud bang before him. The light tremor of the blast together with the movement of Aylin on the hatch was enough to get it to fall open. With a pained smile on her face she tumbled outside.

Then everything became hazy and eventually black.