Despite my attempt to redirect the focus to their wounded, the leader of Clan Galti, Vi Galti, was not so eager to let me help. She had seen my magic as I fought, but was skeptical enough not to immediately bow to my demands. I couldn't even blame her, but it was more than a little frustrating.

  "We have plenty of trained medics," She assured me. "They are already doing what they can. Those who can survive are being treated, and those who won't will be made comfortable."

  "No, I- Oh for fucks sake," I grumbled, yanking off my armored glove and tossing it to Corvak. "I'm not a medic, I'm a wizard. I can get your people back on their feet in just a few minutes, good as new!"

  I had no expectations that my words would get through to her, so I was already working on unsealing the undersuit that covered my hand. With a flick of my hand, I cast Conjured Dagger, holding the weapon out for Vi and her people to see. I slapped it against my armor, then against the rock beside, gouging the latter to prove it was solid and could cut things. Once I had everyone's attention, I took a few bracing breaths before slamming it into my palm, the dagger punching completely through my unprotected hand.

  I staggered a bit, the pain overwhelming me for a moment before I could get control over myself. Blood dripped down my hand as I stepped closer, approaching Vi Galti, stopping just a few feet away. I yanked my dagger out, letting it fade away in a cloud of static and magic, holding my bleeding hand.

  "Dammit, Boss," Corvak said, stepping closer to make sure I didn't collapse. "I didn't think you would jump directly to stabbing yourself."

  "Yeah, underestimated that a little," I admitted under my breath, before looking up at the Clan Galti, holding my hand out. "Observe closely. I am only doing this once."

  I cast Grand Healing on myself, the powerful healing spell shining a bright golden light on anyone close by. When it was done, I wiped my hand, showing it was unmarked and no longer bleeding.

  "Bring me to your wounded, so I can keep them from dying, and we can get the hell off this planet. The Imperials will be coming back soon, and with enough ships to blow my ships out of orbit," I said, looking directly at Vi Galti. "We can have measuring contests and battles of will later. For now, we need to go, and your injury will only slow us down."

  For a moment, Vi stared back at me, her eyes noticeably wide from my display. Eventually, after considering me for a long moment, she nodded.

  "Very well, we will continue to trust the Skyforged and your... healing," she said, turning to gesture into one of the halls carved into stone. "Most of them are this way."

  "Take me to the worst cases first," I instructed, following after the Manbdolorian clan leader.

  Just before we entered the stone hall, I looked back and up at my crew, who were standing by across the large gap, waiting for instructions.

  "Tatnia, Julus, head back and establish contact with Nal and Vaz or directly with the forces above us," I ordered. "Try to use yourself as relays if possible, otherwise I'll need you to carry messages back and forth. Get the transport ships ready, and get the Arquiten and Guardian secure so we can leave the second we are ready."

  "On it, Boss," Tatnia said, nodding as Julus gave me a half-hearted salute, following his girlfriend out of the large chamber.

  As they left, I disappeared deeper into the carved halls, following Vi Galti until we reached the decent-sized room. There were at least thirty people inside, some with cuts and bruises, others with broken bones. The worst were those in meds or layed along crates, as they were clearly dying from their injuries.

  Without waiting for her word, I stepped past Vi and made my way to the most injured people I could find, starting to throw out healing spells like candy. At first, I could feel the doubt and suspicion, until someone who had been massively injured, with broken bones, bruises, and blunt force trauma all along their left side, stood up out of their bed with wide eyes.

  Rather than make a big deal out of it, I simply patted their shoulder, told them it was good to see them up and about, before moving on to the next person. By the time I had gotten to the less injured, the audience had tripled in size, all of them watching with wide eyes, whispering in words of amazement. Vi herself seemed to watch me like a hawk, though she was clearly uncertain what to make of my magic. When I had cleared the room, I started going around healing those who hadn't quite made it to where they were gathering the wounded.

  I was putting the finishing touches on one of the frontline warriors when my comms clicked on and Tatnia's voice came through.

  "Transports are already being launched. They should arrive in a few minutes," my second in command explained. "Most of the Imperial forces have been wiped out, our droids are stripping down the battlefield for anything useful before heading back to their ships. We should have a pretty decent amount of stormtrooper weapons, armor, and equipment to sell when we are done. Captain Calandree of the has already gotten the Guardian on board the ship and is, in theory, preparing the Arquiten for transport in the same way we moved the station.

  "Alright, the Mandalorians are preparing to make the trek up to the surface," I explained, watching as crates and materials were shifted around, the Mandalorian civilians packing up while the warriors kept watch. "Let me know when the first transports are landed."

  Before long, the Mandalorians were making their way up through the caves, an orderly movement that showed exactly what sort of discipline was expected even among Mandalorian civilians. Several extra caverns were emptied of crates, beyond just where people lived, filled with supplies, equipment, and more. Everything worth the time was hauled through the caves all the way to the surface. A few labor droids were helping, but for the most part, it was done by hand.

  Not only were their own stuff taken and packed up, but I saw them taking the dark troopers, wrapping them up in some sort of storage bags before carrying them off to the surface. No doubt they realized their armor had been beskar, and since I hadn't made it, it must have been Mandalorian in origin.

  Eventually, we ended up back at the surface, helping guide people and materials onto the transports. Between trips, Vi Galti all but cornered Corvak and me, clearly interested in answers to a few of our questions.

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  "Corvak's messages made you seem like an interesting leader, Deacon Roy," She said, watching her people climb onto a relative stranger's ships. "He seemed certain you were not just a bleeding heart, and that we would have to earn your trust before you invited us into your precious Nirn. If that is true, where are my people going?"

  "For now, we will be dropping you and your people off at an abandoned mining colony," I explained. "We helped cover their evacuation after they got sick of being raided. They stripped everything down, but the structures remain strong, so they should keep you out of the elements as we talk and you get your feet back under you. If you'd like, we could even station a starfighter squadron and a few basic ships there to protect you until you can protect yourselves. The entire deal was under the table, so there is no record connecting us to the planet, but there is some risk of small pirate groups coming to pester you. "

  "That… sounds acceptable for now," She admitted, watching as another wave of landed, opening their hangar bays.

  Eventually, all of the cargo and civilians were taken away, leaving my crew, Corvak's team, and half of Vi's warriors, the other half having left in the first wave. Corvak, Vi, and I, as well as Corvak and Vi's second in command, Tatnia and Ahsoka, climbed into the final LAAT to leave the world, getting an escort of most of 1st Group's starships, including the As we made our way up and out of the massive cave pit, Vi got a good look at what we had brought to the table to save her and her people.

  "Corvak mentioned you had a talent for growing your forces with every battle," She said, looking out one of the windows along the transport's now closed access wing. "Combat droids, Clone transports, Imperial ships, beskar armor. Surely, such diversity and rapid growth can cause issues."

  "It can, but it's hard to argue when most of it was gained with the five-finger discount, either from Imperials, old CIS bases, or raider groups," I pointed out. "We grow where we can, with what we can get our hands on. Besides, we are on the cusp of being able to produce most of our own parts and materials, dropping the maintenance cost significantly."

  "Impressive. I would like to hear more," she admitted, still looking out the window. "But such talks can wait."

  Honestly, I couldn't tell if she was referring to her paying us back for our service of saving them, or me trying to convince them to join us, which I'm sure she expected me to try. Which I was, of course, just not for a few days. They had just gone through an attack, losing several of their people in the process. Any progress I managed to make now would likely bite me in the butt as they accused me of taking advantage of their mourning or something.

  "I assume most of the people you meet presume you're some sort of Jedi Master with those glowing hands of yours," Vi said out of nowhere as we just started to leave the atmosphere behind. "But I've worked with Jedi before, both during and before the Clone Wars. None of them could do that. And none of them could throw lightning or ice or… whatever it was you did to summon that swordsman or that other healing guy. Do you really claim to be a mage?"

  "I don't claim anything. I a mage," I assured her, the woman raising an eyebrow. "I can give you a better demonstration once we have a bit more room to show off. For now, I could at least conjure some simple things."

  I showed off my familiar, a mage, an archer, all while Vi and her second watched with dropped jaws. I couldn't help but laugh when my familiar stepped forward towards the Mandalorian, and both of them came very close to drawing their weapons.

  "They are under my complete control, and I didn't spend so many resources just to kill you now," I pointed out.

  "I see… And this magic is how you have found enough beskar to cover all our people in armor?" She asked, glancing at Corvak. "I was told that all warriors wear armor such as yours, while the standard uniform is woven from beskar wire. How is this possible? Even before the night of a thousand tears, such a thing would have still been impossible. Something of that scale hasn't been possible since the days of the great beskar mines, when we used to build our starships from it."

  "My magic, while limited in some ways, does give me many options," I explained, casting respite on myself just for the glowing effect. "One of my more niche, but certainly powerful spells allows me to convert one pure metal into another. They must be of comparable values and weights, or all I will get is barely usable dust, but we have stolen quite a bit of metal from a few different sources in order to armor our people properly. I could easily show this spell, I just need samples of metal."

  "If you could do this, why do you fight?" Vi's second asked, their skepticism clear. "Why do you not just create bars of aurodium and live like kings?"

  "Like I said, it requires metal of similar value. If I bought enough material to make a bar of Aurodium, then turned it into Aurodium, I would have just spent what the bar is worth making it," I explained. "In fact, I would have likely spent more since the spell is not perfectly efficient, some metal is lost in conversion. The spell shines when a metal is rare but useful, meaning I can convert metals that are more common but still valuable into them. I have found that a bar of platinum is nearly perfect for creating an ingot of beskar of near identical size."

  For a long moment, Vi stared at me, trying to judge what I had said. Considering I had just spent a few minutes showing off my magic, she couldn't deny that I was capable of some weird stuff, even if transmutation sounded insane, even when compared to throwing lightning and conjuring constructs.

  "Fine, I will withhold judgment on your beskar until I can see the… magic for myself," She said, seeming to surprise her second. "If you truly do not use Mandalorian beskar, then we cannot hold it against you."

  "I appreciate that."

  "...There was a sizable fleet of ships above us, before we retreated completely into the ground," Vi pointed out, seemingly moving past the conversation about beskar. "I was not aware you had the resources to handle such a group of ships. How did you take out a Star Destroyer so easily?"

  "Trade secret," I said with a smirk. "Can't spread it around or people might start to-"

  "We crashed a space station converted into a battering ram into it," Tatnia said, cutting me off, rolling her eyes. "It's not like it's a secret, Boss. Not to mention, she will be able to see it out her window in less than a minute."

  True to her words, just a few minutes later, we passed the shattered wreck of the SD, which clearly showed the broken remnants of two ships having crashed together before exploding. It wasn't completely obvious what had happened, but it was clear enough for the trained eye to figure it out.

  was also revealed, catching the clan leader off guard. Apparently, Corvak hadn't yet revealed the acquisition, wanting to work up to it as, frankly, having such a massive ship privately owned was more than a bit unbelievable.

  We landed in the open hangar bay while the droid transport ships moved across to the production and repair hangar, pushing all the way back for storage. Most of the unloading would be done automatically, but there would be some work for those who had joined us.

  Clan Galti had gathered together, all one hundred and nineteen surviving members, in the hangar, waiting for their leader to join them. Once she did, she stood in front of them, instantly gathering their attention.

  "The Skyforged Vanguard, the owners of this ship and those who came to rescue us, have offered us someplace to stay and recover," She explained. "I have chosen to continue and accept their help, as our position is… unfortunate. Once we have settled in, I plan on cashing in several debts owed to us, gathering ships capable of transporting us, so that our reliance on the Skyforged is reduced. However, it is unlikely we will be able to forgo it completely any time soon."

  Murmuring spread throughout the crowd, only stopping when Vi continued to talk.

  "Deacon Roy and his mercenary group took down a Star Destroyer, capturing or running off its escorts to pull our sheb'ika out of the fire," She said, cutting into Mando'a for a moment. "For that, we owe them considerably. Only time will tell if that debt is treated fairly, but considering Clan Syr's commitment and Corvak's personal endorsement, I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt for now."

  The crowd rumbled approvingly, Vi nodding in confirmation. It seemed that, for now, the Mandalorians of Clan Galti were satisfied to work with us.