The Blade pulled away while the fire in the engine compartment burned. The pilot hoped that he'd get to the hangar frigate in time. Rafaella's eyes narrowed as she saw what happened. She hissed something at the pilot, in Dallethian. Groaning, he turned to the heading she indicated and limped out of battle.
'One down.' Rafaella thought. 'Well, now that Tashannoc has arrived we shouldn't continue to take the beating we have.' She made a mental note to reassess the pilot of the damaged Blade. He was having troubles where his comrades weren't.
Taista's eyes widened as he saw the exploding Rebel craft. He nervously called
Rafaella. To his surprise, she sounded totally calm as she gave them their orders. He
wondered what it'd take to break Rafaella's spirit...
"A heck of a lot, you idiot! Now obey orders!" Lin barked. Taista nodded as the
eight remaining Blades pulled into attack formation and hurled themselves at the Nightlord,
firing relentlessly. On board the Hope, Rafaella placed a call, not back to
Dalleth, but to the hangar frigate. They acknowledged her call, informing her that the
damaged Blade would receive priority care.
The large Sentinel shuttle flew like a dream. Arcana weaved around the space platform a few times, rather oblivious to the battle that was raging on the other side of the planet. There was a nice cargo hold: Time to put it to good use. There was excellent contraband available down in Sullust Space Port. That was, of course, provided that he could get out of the system without being detected by some dumb Rebel craft.
Arcana sighed. He was on a ship far too often. He'd have to get out and make himself
useful someday. The Sentinel shuttle drained quite a bit of his bank account, though. He'd
have to stick with shipping a little more.
The smuggler flew back towards the spaceport. He landed his craft and purchased a load of
weapons to smuggle: blasters, concussion grenades, and thermal detonators.
"Have you ever tried using a thermo-detonator in space?" asked Essex.
"Huh?" Arcana asked. He was on the landing ramp, just outside of his shuttle.
"Load some into the grenade/missile launcher. With a few settings, I can link and fire them towards ships."
Arcana was rather surprised, but interested. Thermal detonators were great on land,
after all. What difference would there be in space? "Hey, you, I want six more
detonators on my ship. Class A."
The moving boy nodded and departed to get the smuggler's demands. Before he left, Arcana
flipped him an Imperial coin.
"Let's go ahead and get the Hell out of here," Arcana told Essex. "I'm not
sticking around for another Imperial War. There may be a chance the Rebel scum is onto
me."
"Understood," Essex replied mechanically. He stepped back into the ship and disappeared.
Rachel's stomach gave a sudden twist as one of the Rebel cruisers went down. One of
the few, despite the reinforcements that had just recently arrived to support the dying
Rebel fleet.
'I don't want them to die!' She thought silently, but she would not let her crew
know her thoughts. She wondered if there was a way she could help them more without being
too obvious, but she didn't think she could. As the Knightfall joined the rest of
the ships at the coordinates Daliwhel had given, she decided she'd just have to play it
out the best she could without doing to much damage to the Rebels.
She hoped she'd get to do a little more of her own thing later. A little more hands-on
fighting. Maybe she could try her hand in one of those TIEs. She'd flown fighters before,
and she knew she would do well, but...she somehow didn't want to. She just wanted to
destroy something. Preferably Rebels. Or maybe not...
Zaierra Kaveron paced back and forth on the command deck of the Deception. The necessary diplomacies with one of her numerous informants had taken far too long; she was going to miss her chance. "Ma'am, we're still far from Sullust. Are you sure you wish to continue? The place is a war zone."
"Of course I wish to continue! Now do your job and make sure we get there!" she ordered.
"By my calculations we should arrive at Sullust in thirty minutes," the young pilot informed.
"Good. Drop out of hyperspace here and proceed slowly. I don't want to startle
anyone just yet," Zaierra replied while shoving a sensor tech from his seat. 'If
only there were a way to assess the situation before entering the system' she thought.
Then it struck her. Quickly removing the panel so she could modify the sensors she
muttered, "I will not be caught going into this blind."
Hendrikson was gripping the control board in front of him so hard his knuckles were
white. Things were not looking good at all. Usually about now, what with the Rebel
reinforcements from Tashannoc, they would be able to rout a few extra ships and give the
Imps something to think about. Hendrikson's tactic with the target focusing on certain
ships had cost the Imps a VSD, a Frigate, and most of an ISD. The remains were floating
around here and there. The Crimson had gone up in a flash of fire not to long ago.
Major Frenault's command, starting with five ships, now numbered three. Hendrikson was
lucky enough to have his ships survive this long at least. The Xenomorph's fighter
complement was down to 40% functioning capability, and the Retaliation's bomber
squadrons were almost gone. Sullust was a vegetable. The troops and artillery on the
ground could hold off the Rebels till well, forever. But Hendrikson, and, obviously, every
other commander, saw a chance here to take out a good portion of the 2nd Imperial Fleet.
'Good luck, hero.' He thought to himself grimly.
It was going to be his day. "Essex, fire up the converters. I'm off to Rodia for some shipping!"
The droid nodded. "Yes."
Arcana sat back in the seat. With the new ship, he felt as if he could do anything. He still wouldn't tangle with an Imperial Star Destroyer, but the increased assistance with a new piloting droid sure helped. As Essex turned the ship and moved it out of the Sullust Space Port, he hit the thrusters quickly to burn past some stray shots. The movement jerked Arcana back in his seat.
"Good thinking," Arcana commented as he leaned forward to pay more
attention. He wasn't invincible. No one was.
As he worked the instrument panel, he noticed the inscription in the windshield.
"What does that say? Provided by... Domino de Devastator...?"
The smuggler gulped. He let out a breath. Although the Dark Jedi offered him a generous
rank in the Imperial Navy, and seemed nice enough, he wouldn't want the Sith showing up on
his doorstep.
Arcana understood how that human back there got him such a nice ship for so few
credits. He should have known that this was a gift!
The smuggler struck his hand over the instrument panel in rage. He hated to be indebted to
anyone, anything! He looked towards the droid that sat beside him, and wondered what sort
of spying devices that Domino could have implanted into him. The smuggler took a deep
breath. His every movement was suddenly under surveillance.
Arcana reached for the control yoke carefully, conscious of what was being seen and
what wasn't. "Essex, there's a slight change of
plans. Take me to the Imperial Star Destroyer..." Arcana paused, trying to remember
it's name. He spotted the super Star Destroyer,
then pointed. "Send a hail to that Destroyer, Essex. Ask for landing permission. I
have to have a talk with that guy.."
The young man sighed as he realized that he was going to be thrust into the heat of
a battle. He hoped the IFF codes he had were still
valid. After all, there were many more Imperial craft than there were Rebel. On the way,
he hailed the Rebel cruisers in a desperate
attempt to keep his ship together.
"Look here, you Alliance guys," he started. "I'm not on anyone's side here. I don't want any ships firing at me. There's a lot more guns in this thing than meets the eye. I'm only out to see one of the Imperial guys about personal business. Like, really personal...."
The transmission was cut. He wasn't sure if the commander heard enough or if he decided to ignore his request.
The decision of the Rebel Commanders awaited. And the talk with Domino awaited as well.
Deep in the bowels of Sullust, Aria noted the increased volume above her head as she
searched for the rare Wakkia-lu-zia. This is the first smuggling trip she wouldn't have to
go off planet to complete. Unfortunately, these small furry creatures had two advantages
over Aria. One, it was dark as Sith in these underground tunnels and two, they emitted a
scent, when they sensed danger, that would put down a full grown wookiee. Once again, Aria
concentrated on changing her scent and sound, praying there would be nothing else to take
away her concentration. These animals were 100,000 credits apiece.
After several attempts to grab one of the very elusive creatures, Aria muttered a curse
she picked up on Corellia. "It pays to know more than one language in this
universe." Finally, she caught one and quickly calmed it so she could sedate it. Two
down, one more to go.
'Maybe I can get those diseased Sullustans to give me a higher price for them. After
all, I don't need these Wakkia-lu-zia for these healing properties and it is taking a
longer time to find these animals than I thought.'
She searched for several more minutes before capturing the second Wakkia, suddenly blaster
fire could be heard above her.
'GREAT!!! How do you expect me to catch these things if they are frightened out of
their minds.'
Knowing her search was futile with all the commotion, Aria extricated herself from the
tunnel and proceeded towards the meeting place at Sully's Tavern.
Two hundred twenty five thousand credits later, Aria was heading toward the docking bay to
board her ship, Bandork's Revenge. Just as she stepped into the landing area a
blast breezed by her face.
"What the--?" Aria quickly ducked behind the plasteel wall and released her
small holdout blaster. She returned fire while looking for the cause of the blaster fire.
"Damn! I have stumbled upon a war. Of all the luck in the universe!" Aria
counted several squads of Sullust Guards and stormtroopers shooting it out with each
other. "Well, it ain't my war. I'm outta here!" Concentrating on a series of
boxes near the far side of the bay, Aria sent them tumbling down on a group of
stormtroopers that started shooting at her. Then she grabbed her smoke grenade and threw
it in the opposite direction. Trusting the Force that she ws not meant to die just yet,
she quickly got to her ship and boarded. "I doubt very seriously they will give me
clearance but here goes nothing..."
~Request for departure denied, Jedi's Dream. We cannot allow civilians into
Sullust space until further notice. Repeat, request denied.~
Adjusting her transponder frequency so that it would change as soon as she jumped to
hyperspace, Aria blasted out of the bay doors. It was relatively easy to leave the space
port and Aria realized why seconds later when a TIE Intercept locked it's target on her
ship.
'Oh no you don't.' Aria banked left and executed a tight twist. Within seconds the
poor ship was in her sights. "Bon voyage..."
That done, Aria accelerated off the planet. Just as she was about to enter hyperspace, her proximity alarm went off. Looking at her scope, Aria saw more TIES and Imperial class ships than she cared to think about. And there were several unidentified fighters as well. That is when she noticed the Rebel's ships. "They are getting blasted..." Aria's hand drifted centimeters above the hyperspace lever. "What to do...?"
"Release Black squadron!" Hendrikson said to a tech who was sitting nearby him.
"Sir? Black Squadron?"
"Yes, hurry up about it!" Black Squadron was a motley squadron of X-Wings and B-Wings that was piloted by maniacal zealots. A people thought to be Lunatics who thought dying in battle was as close to some almighty power as you could get. Therefore, they made excellent fighters. They thought that the more ships they took down before being killed would exalt them higher in their afterlife. Their only downside is that they didn't care about the Rebels, so in the hunt for Imps, they might use rebel ships as bait or cannon fodder, costing them ships that were sorely needed in this battle.
"But what about-"
"Just call them to their ships."
"Yes sir.." As soon as the hangar bay door was open, Hendrikson saw his
last major gamble shoot out into open space. The B-Wings, four of them, locked on to a
small group of fighters and made a pass, firing lasers. Most shots missed but a few struck
home and destroyed a couple ships. The X-Wings had a different plan, and in the first
minute of battle, unloaded their proton torpedoes into a VSD then pummeled it with their
lasers. A B-Wing joined them, using his proton torpedoes as well then firing a full spread
of laserfire and ion cannon.
Hendrikson watched as the Black group happily went about their work. A B-Wing was
destroyed under fire from a frigate. Hendrikson, on a whim, looked out of his viewport at
the line of Imperial ships. 'Oh no...I wish I'd seen that earlier.' The defensive
line seemed impenetrable. The damage that the VSD the Black pilots were pummeling had
taken lethal damage but with the support from the other capital ships it was still
standing. This prolonged life affect could stand to hurt. However, Black group was doing
their job perfectly.
"Gunnery officer, fire a spread of concussion missiles at that Victory-class Star Destroyer." Hendrikson saw the pinpoints of light as the missiles sped away from the ship and impacted on the VSD's shields. Most of the missiles hit steel rather than shield, and severely damaged the craft. It was far from destroyed. Black squadron went back to work on it and Hendrikson saw that the job would be accomplished shortly in any case. He saw another zealot fall under fire. He sat back down in his command chair and picked up the radio. It was time to see if there were any more ships to spare.
Walking through the mid-morning jungles surrounding the main temple was one of the
most relaxing things for Mara Jade. Considering the fear and stress she was feeling
lately, she needed to relax more often.
She found what she was looking for within minutes. The most relaxing location she could
think of, a pool of water that was heated by Yavin IV's geothermal heat. She slipped out
of her tunic and pants, and slid into the water.
'Why couldn't I have thought of this sooner? It would have saved me so much stress.'
she thought.
She shut her eyes, and as she did she heard laughter; two voices, male and female,
laughing right into her soul. She opened her eyes and saw a man and a woman standing at
the edge of the pool. She couldn't see their faces, but she knew who they were. She could
make out the red glowing eyes, and that they were staring straight at her.
Behind the two figures she could see some movement. 'It's Luke!' He was approaching
to rescue her.
As he got closer, several beings jumped out from the bushes and Luke stopped. The man, the woman, and all of the other shadowy figures faced Luke and began to ravage him with Force-lightning!
"No! No!" Mara cried out. "Nooooo! Destroy me, not him!" She
shut her eyes and screamed! Opening her eyes took every last bit of courage she could
muster. She was still sitting in the pool of hot water. There was a great deal of mist
rolling around low to the ground. "It's only a vision!" she said out loud.
"This mist is only a product of the natural heat mixing with the cool air." She
got out of the pool and began to gather her things.
'The mist is clearing away. I'll head back to the main temple immediately.'
She looked out into the mist and thought she saw someone in the mist. She began to run to
the temple, and she could hear things chasing her. She entered the temple and called out
Luke's name. She heard him say "Over here Mara!" She turned in that direction
and saw Luke and several academy students frozen in blocks of ice!
"Nooooooooooooo!" she screamed, as she sat up in bed.
Wileth had always made this look much easier than it actually was. The sensors weren't responding to her modifications. She didn't have time for any more nuisances. Frustrated, she slammed the cover back on the panel. Deciding to use a different tactic she asked, "Are we close enough for the holocommunicator to function?"
"Yes, but just barely."
Zaierra made a mental note to add that to her repairs list. "Bakka," she nodded towards the man at the comm station, "send a message to the Sullust Space Port. Tell them it's important."
"Right," Bakka replied.
A short time later, the grubby face of a Sullustan appeared. "My name is Commander Zaierra Kaveron. I need a status report on the current battle."
~Why don't you just ask your friends?~
"I can't reach my 'friends'. Our transmissions are being jammed."
The Sullustan seemed aggravated but did offer the news that if the Rebels' reinforcements didn't arrive soon the Empire would win. Zaierra thanked the creature and thought about this piece of information. "Commander?" Bakka questioned. "Since when?"
"Shush." It looked like she wouldn't have to cause any trouble this time. Then again, perhaps she did have something worthwhile to offer the Imperials. Yes, this could prove very interesting after all.
Hendrikson's Black Squadron gamble seemed to be working well. The zealots together
had wiped a squadron or so of TIEs and a VSD off the map, and half of them were now
picking a fight with an ISD while others chased TIE interceptors and Bombers.
Still, the initial effect had worn off. He needed another surprise, but didn't have
anything.
'Actually,' He thought to himself, 'you DO have something that could scare the
pants off of those Imps.' He sighed. 'I just wish I had authorization to use it.'
He wished the Top Secret weapon was a Death Star, but no such luck. According to the brief
glimpse he'd been given it couldn't be considered a super weapon, or even a
really-awesome-super-cool weapon, but it seemed spiffy. He tried to open a line to Tashannoc's
Gift to ask permission to utilize it, but found the transmission unavailable. He saw
he was going to have to wait his turn.
Rachel scowled at the Black Squadron fighters as an Imperial Star Destroyer
exploded. "What kind of suicidal idiots are these Rebels?!" she wondered aloud.
She knew that these religiously zealous pilots could not win the battle for the Rebels,
but she realized that she could lose plenty of good ships to them. It was time she had
better do something serious about these renegades.
She ordered the Knightfall and two other star destroyers into position close to the
wildly firing Rebels and ordered her gunners to fire at will. A flicker of anger sparked
in her as a few of the Rebels engaged two squadrons of TIEs and managed to bring down 13
of them, but she quelled the anger quickly. This was no time to lose control. The shock
the TIE pilots had felt when the suicidal Black Squadron fighters had entered the fray had
now turned into a grim determination to destroy them before they could do anymore damage.
The TIEs were now doing a wonderful job at slaughtering the Rebels. One by one, the TIE
squadrons picked off the crazy Rebel fighters, leaving only a few to continue their
maniacal dashes on the Imperial ships. Rachel decided that there were too few of them left
to worry about now and turned her attention to the eight Blades swarming around the
battlefield. Perhaps she could take out a few of those, also.
Aria's hands drifted over the hyperspace lever for a few more moments. Finally she
made a decision and dropped into a hairpin Turn.
Swallowing and Praying, Aria hoped she knew what she was doing. If not, this was going to
be the biggest waste of 225,000 credits.
The heaviest fire was over by the HUGE Star Destroyer, but it seem there were a smaller
group of fighters that were not really engaged in fighting right now. They seem to just be
blockading any retreat.
'Why am I doing this?'
She opened communications and quickly found the rebels frequency. "This
is...Jed...Aria Ka Djo, I liked to know if I can be of any assistance. I see you are under
serious fire and there are a group of fighters blockading any form of retreat. I have a
few surprises I can drop over that way and beat it outta here. Will some one
acknowledge?"
'Girl, you are outta your mind.' she thought.
Arcana sent out a hail to Domino's ship. He hoped that the Dark Lord was around, and that he would accept his transmission. He needed to know what was going on. He wanted to know why he received this ship as a gift. He asked the captain for permission to land, and waited for a reply.
As Arcana floated around space, he noticed another craft, it seemed like a privately
owned craft as well. Perhaps another trader in the galaxy. Under any other circumstance,
he'd drop a missile and hyperspace away... typical of him to ruin other's shipping
exploits...
but he had to wait for a critical transmission. If Domino ever arrived.
Maybe his owning the Sentinel-class shuttle wasn't such a big deal, after all. He figured
that he could probably hyperspace away. After all, he had the access codes to work his way
around the fighters.
Arcana began to pull away when a harsh voice roared over his speaker. "Just
where do you think you're going, smuggler?"
Arcana was sure he recognized the Imperial's voice. He cut the throttle.
It was dangerous sitting still. But he figured that a big Star Destroyer was within a
kilometer away....
Aria thought, Well, at least I didn't say Jedi KNIGHT, as she armed her concussion missiles. 'If these babies hit anything, it won't be surviving this battle.'
She noticed an Imperial shuttle heading toward the large Star Destroyer but it
seemed not to notice the battle taking place. Changing to ion cannons, Aria crept closer
to the ship.
'He doesn't know I am here, or does he?' Aria shot a series of lasers across the
nose of the ship, just to bait him.
Rafaella flipped a switch on her comm unit as she heard Aria's call. "This is
Jedi Master Rafaella of House Therkan. Your
assistance would indeed be valuable to us, Aria Ka Djo."
She calmly turned to the battle once again, leaving her comm unit on standby in case
anyone wanted to talk...Then she concentrated on blasting a way out to retreat.
She felt cornered, and as always when she did, she had this urge to hurl herself
suicidally at the nearest target. She suppressed the urge, and took calculated, well-aimed
shots instead.
Taista, finally realizing what Rafaella was up to, joined her in blasting away the fighters which blocked their way.
Lin, as always, was blasting at the big Star Destroyer, muttering a few choice
words, some of which would have made another Wookiee
blush. She would have like to contact the Imperials just to tell them exactly how she felt
about them but didn't, knowing that such a thing wouldn't change the outcome of the
battle. She went on concentrating on the battle instead.
Martel stalked up and down the bridge of his ship. The Nightlord's shields
were definitely weakening, but the shield generators were very powerful and Martel was not
worried about them. He was more worried about the Rebels weapon. He could sense through
the Force that they were planning something big.
"Release another squadron of Interceptors," Martel called to the tactical
officer. Suddenly,
an out-of-control B-wing slammed into a gravity well projector of one of the Interdictor
Cruisers, and it exploded in
a bright ball of flame, causing a massive chain reaction throughout the rest of the ship.
Martel growled into the comm to Hangar Bay 15, "Prepare my Skipray. I'm going into
the battle."
Admiral Daliwhel stared at the unfamiliar ship that was hailing the Pride of Domino. He approached the com-officer. "What is the nature of that shuttle?"
"Sir," the officer replied, "It is a shuttle bearing transponder codes of Lord de Devastator himself. The pilot is sending coded transmissions that are currently in use by the smuggler Arcana." The officer looked to Daliwhel.
The admiral turned away. "Tractor him in! And send out more fighters to deal with those Blades! We can't just let them keep thinking they are indestructible." No sooner had he given that order, when two TIE Interceptors let loose with a barrage of blaster fire and completely vaporized a Blade.
~Great shooting, Errant 6!~ came the Imperial com-chatter.
Then the reply, ~Couldn't do it without you, Errant 5.~
Errant squadron was one of the more decorated squadrons of the Imperial Armada, and they had finally been called in to fight. ~Errant group,~ called the squadron leader, ~get in tight, and give 'em Hell! We aren't done till the last rebel dies!~
Rafaella let out a curse as the Blade vaporized. As another was launched to replace
it she realized that her ships were taking a beating and she would have no more
reinforcements soon. There were only eight more Blades held back as spares.
She continued to blast away, trying to make a way out for the Rebels.
'This battle is getting complicated, and long-drawn, though I intend to fight to the
end, no matter what.'
'Good, good,' Arcana thought.
They were going to tractor him in. It was about time. As the green beam locked onto
his ship and began pulling, he saw five blue beams
fly right in front of his ship. He took a quick glance to his left. It seemed that a
non-aligned transport was firing at him.
"All right," he said, raising his shields to full strength and arming his
weapons.
"In a second, Domino," he said, pulling away from the tractor beam. "Essex,
take that turret and hit that ship. I'm doing a sensor sweep right now."
He read the specs. It seemed to be owned by Aria Ka Djo. Bandork's Revenge, it was called.
It was a nice ship.
'Such a shame that it has to go to waste.'
He turned around, hit the throttle, and dropped the panels covering his lasers. He fired a
wide spread of green bolts of light.
'Seven in all,' he thought proudly. He noted that three of them hit the opposing
ship as he pulled up. The computerized belly turret fired a few inaccurate shots with its
single laser cannon, and missed. As he rose, the cargo within the magnetically-sealed
cartons shifted. Arcana shut off two of the lasers to conserve power as he armed two
concussion launchers. He took a peek at the Command Display Unit. The ship's shields were
charged up to full strength moments after he placed the shots on it.
'This would prove interesting,' the smuggler thought.
The four ships under Hendrikson's command were still faring well, considering. He
had the Remember Ord Mantell on rear guard, and the rest of his ships were fighting
to stay alive. Suddenly his comm channels beeped.
'Incoming message from Tahsannoc's Gift!' Hurriedly he opened the channel,
expecting to see the general's face.
Instead, he saw the flushed face of a technician.
~Sir, can't talk long, sir, gotta keep the channels open!~
"Where's the General?!" Hendrikson asked.
~He's up top, sir! He can't talk now, sir! If you have a question I can relay it, sir.~
Hendrikson nodded. "Yeah. Wanted permission to deploy Object AA-R45." he used the code name for the secret weapon. The tech pressed some buttons and stared at a screen Hendrikson couldn't see.
~Permission is granted sir, take 'em down!~ The tech gave him a thumbs up
sign and disappeared.
Immediately Hendrikson ordered a squadron of B-Wings to be outfitted. He only had a small
amount of the weapons. Ten minutes later a B-Wing flew quickly into space, followed by an
X-Wing escort. Locking on to a TIE Advanced, the B-Wing launched a small, elongated
missile. The TIE saw this missile coming and tried to outrun it. The missile streaked and
missed, flying underneath the ball of the TIE's cockpit. Hendrikson was guessing that the
pilot probably felt relief. He shouldn't. The missile flew about 300 yards in front of the
TIE, and turned, heading back to it's target. The TIE jinked to the right and the missile
adjusted it's course. About three seconds before it would impact, the missile ejected
twenty tiny spheres. The rocket fizzled and lost speed, until it stopped. The TIE pilot,
meanwhile, had thought the missile had self-destructed. He didn't realize he was wrong
until he hit one of the spheres and was destroyed.
"By a Gundark's Ear, the thing WORKS!" The main operation of this missile was to lay huge minefields with tiny mines that would be extremely difficult to navigate, but if fitted with a detonator and a homing beacon it could track an enemy ship, be remotely activated and make the ship fly into a small cloud of death. Hendrikson clapped his hands together. "All right! let's use this to ensure some ill fate for the Imperials!"
General Tamar, on board the Pride of Domino, was watching the B-Wing as it deployed the new weapon. 'By the Sith, why hasn't the Empire thought of something like that?' He continued to watch as two more TIE's fell prey to the mines laid out by the one missile, then issued the order. "Com, alert all fighters! Tell them....."
~All Squadrons, there is a new hazard. avoid the coordinates being sent out to you. Be alert for a new weapon...... ~ the com officer directing the fighter squadrons spoke, giving implicit instructions to the pilots.
Errant squadron was mopping up space orbitting Sullust, wiping rebel scum from existence. when they received the latest instructions from the com-officer, they redirected their flight patterns to harass the new threat. "E-7" and "E-8" were the first to get the opportunity.
~Seven, stay sharp, I see one of the B-Wings with the surprise now!~ The "Errant" pilots flew in fast to threaten the B-Wing and the X-Wings escorting it! With rapid fire and dead-eye accuracy, the blew an X-Wing to Hell. Then the B-Wing released it's payload. Errant 7 took off to allow the missile to pursue it, and Errant 8 hung back long enough to let the missile pass by! "E-8" gunned his throttle and got as close as he would ever get to the missile. He opened fire on the destructive weapon and managed to open up the side of the missile, compromising it's integrity! At first the missile began to fly off course, then it began to gyrate wildly before exploding into a brilliant colorful ball! Errant 8 flew through the explosion like a child running through a sprinkler on a hot Corellian summer day!
~Hell of a shot Errant 8!~
Tamar watched the exchange and nodded his approval. It wasn't sure fire, but they at least
had a method to deal with these new weapons.
Mumar laughed as she finished the nightmare implant on Mara Skywalker. "Soon, your soul will be mine, and the death of Luke Skywalker, will be your guilt." Mumar looked towards Domino, "Is the ship ready yet?"
Domino nodded, "She's all ready, my dear lady. She's heading in the direction of Yavin IV right now. Unfortunately, I do not see how harrassing Master Skywalker and his students will ensure the rebirth of the Sith Empire. If you continue to waste my resources in this manner you may find yourself at the receiving end of my disapproval."
Mumar wrung her hands, "Patience, my near-sighted partner. My plan is going according to schedule."
Meanwhile, the Sword of Hecate and departed out of the shipyard of Fondor and made it's way to Yavin IV.
On Yavin IV, Mara was in the process of telling Luke about her nightmare. Suddenly she stiffened and began to shiver. "I have a bad feeling Luke, she's getting ready to strike."
He smiled. "Mara, we are a planet full of Jedi Knights and students. Aside from the heavy sensor arrays the Alliance has installed here to track inbound ships, nobody can get on or off this moon without attracting our attention." He paused and looked at her. "Don't worry, we'll be fine. She won't get you."
Martel expertly piloted his Skipray through the mine field. An X-wing was attempting
to engage him, but Martel had more pressing matters on his mind, like what to do with the
Shadows. The Shadows were doing their job well, the Rebel capital ships were slowly being
weakened for the third phase of the his plans. Martel absently fired his lasers at the
X-wing.
'A minor annoyance,' he thought as the X-wing burst into a fireball.
The Rebels were no match for Martel's piloting skill. Even the greatest pilots of the
Alliance, Wedge Antilles, Luke Skywalker, Tycho Celchu, or Corran Horn would be hard
pressed against Martel in a dogfight. The normally four-crewman Skipray Blastboat
was being operated all by himself. He marveled at how great of pilot he could become if he
lived as long as his Master, Nelazriel.
A Blade came out of nowhere, firing its lasers at Martel. Locking on his target, Martel
fired a proton torp. A direct hit, but the shields stopped the torpedo from totally
destroying the ship. The Blade responded with another salvo of laser fire, but Martel dove
away from the green bolts. His own lasers lanced out at the Blade, knocking its shields
out. He fired the ion cannon and left the Blade dead in space.
'It would be a valuable asset, if we refitted it with Imperial equipment,' he
thought.
Through a secure com channel Martel said, "Doom Squadron, concentrate all of your
firepower on the capital ships. Blood Squadron will be along shortly"
Hendrikson swore as the second Gemini Missile was destroyed. He only had
twenty-eight left for all the rebel ships. Two or three for each B-Wing. Luckily, there
were those pilots who knew a way around the pilots. It was a simple matter of taking off
the homing device and detonating it before it was shot. This tactic resulted in the
partial death of a TIE advanced. The obvious other way is to use it for it's first purpose
and litter space with tiny mines capable of doing significant damage. Hendrikson decided
against the latter and told all ships to leave their Geminis homing devices switched
"On."
He then increased the number of escorts to three X-Wings and A-Wings per B-Wing that was
loaded. That way when enemy ships approached the Gemini-toting B-Wings, the attacker would
have to deal with not one, but three rebels. Of course, this still resulted in the death
of many escorts but the mines laid out by the Geminis appeared on Rebel scopes and not
Imperial so the Imps were losing fighter craft quickly to the nearly-invisible mines.
The eventual payoff was 5:3, the Imps losing five ships to every Rebel three. This was not
due to the Geminis altogether however, as the dog-fighting resulted in most Imperial
deaths. Finally, all the B-Wings reported in with 0 Geminis left in their launch tubes.
Hopefully, the mines would continue to destroy enemy ships. Five minutes later the kill
ratio had dropped back to an even "ship for ship" status. Their momentary
advantage was over. Hendrikson, however, had hoped Tashannoc has seen THIS weapon in
action and would try and get it standard outfit for the Rebels. "And we all know it's
only a matter of time until the Imperials come up with a Imp clone to the Gemini." He
said quietly.
Bandork's Revenge shook with the impact of the unknown ship's blasts. "Stang it! Direct Hit! Well if he wants to play hard ball, I gotta a surprise for him."
Aria loaded up two of her concussion missiles and aimed for the other ship's engines. "You might be able to shoot, but when these babies hit you, you will be dead in space. Scratch one Imperial!" Aria fired on Arcana's ship. The first concussion grazed the side of the ship but the second was a dead hit. "YES!! Now for those TIEs."
Aria was determined to kill as few of these people as possible but disabling them was just as effective. Suddenly a TIE screamed over head as she heard the message on the com asking her help. Better late than never. Easily she lined the TIE up on her scanners and shot his right wing. That TIE fighter careened into a Star Destroyer's shields. Glancing around she saw she was pretty much out of the fight unless she attacked some of those more brash TIES that just joined the fight. Banking to the right, Aria really prayed she knew what she was doing.
In the minefield Rachel clenched her hands into two tight fists until her
fingernails cut into her skin. Tiny mines didn't pose such a terrible threat for the Star
Destroyers, but they could eventually bring them down. And the TIEs...
Rachel had to use a half-forgotten Jedi calming technique to stop herself from exploding.
'Mines! Of all the blasted things, they had to be mines that were nearly undetectable.
But maybe, if I can figure out where...'
She did know where they had been released. Maybe that would give her something to
start with. She ordered one of the bridge crew to track the mines, no matter how long it
took or how hard it was. They couldn't be completely undetectable.
'They CAN'T be.' After what seemed to be an eternity, the results came back. Rachel
didn't even let herself think that they had found them all, but they had located some. It
would have to be enough.
She knew that her gunners couldn't target anything that small, but there seemed to be a
cluster of mines in one area that might just be big enough to shoot down. She gave her
gunners the coordinates of the clump and let them shoot at it. As she had thought, the
shot triggered the mines and they exploded harmlessly.
She smiled. Good thing she had cleared her ships out of the area before she had set the mines off. Maybe, she could locate another group and take out some more.
Martel was getting bored with this. He wanted the Shadows to get the Rebels
warships, but Blood Squadron had not been launched. The cloaked TIE Shadows were firing
flurry after flurry of their lasers in the non-visible electromagnetic spectrum. This was
secretly weakening the Rebels ships, and the Imperials had the upper-hand.
Martel heard over the comlink to the Nightlord that Blood Squadron was being
launched now. "Blood and Doom Squadrons, "Martel called over the comm.
"Fire everything you have at the Rebels, from the smallest freighter to the largest
capital ship. The Warbirds and the Gunships should be here shortly.
Martel was glad that the Nerakan reinforcements were on their way, as he could wrap
himself in the familiar confines of the Warbird. Another bold Rebel tried to fire at
Martel, but he quickly dispatched the fighter. The A-wing's wingman was coming to take
vengeance, but Martel fired his ion cannon and launched his last torpedo.
One of the Shadows had hit the Rebels' mines and exploded. Martel keyed up his tactical
and saw that he still had a full load of concussion missiles and his lasers were still at
almost full power. He routed one quarter of his laser power to his shields and went after
a
Nebulon-B frigate. He fired four of his missiles at the frigate, as he dodged the
turbolaser fire.
"Drat! One down!" Rafaella muttered. She hoped the Empire wouldn't get
that Blade.
'If the Empire copied them...' She was going to give an order, but then the Blade
exploded. Rafaella almost froze feeling remorse for the pilot who had willingly given his
life to keep the Blade technology secret. Then, she turned to the battle once again,
thinking warmly and a little sadly of her friend.
She dodged one of the Blood Squadron ships, and turned to fire at it. Then she got an idea. She got the Imperial to follow her, and flew as close to the mines as she dared. As she had planned, the Imperial hit the mine, and exploded. Chuckling, she sent her people a signal. Soon all the other eight Blades were doing the same, except Taista, who had two Imperials following him and crashing on top of a mine. This reminded her strongly of Marddin. 'He'd probably have tried to make three or four Imps following him, though.'
Rachel stared at the battle, her eyes focusing on one single ship amidst the battle.
She thought she had felt a flicker of Force-power just a moment ago from that ship. Now,
it was gone.
'But if that so-called smuggler ship really held Jedi...'
"I want to know everything you can find out about that ship!" She announced,
indicating the Bandork's Revenge. In a few moments, the data came up. Rachel
couldn't really tell from the information if there was a Jedi aboard or not, but she
thought it was worth the risk. "Helm, plot course to intercept the Bandork's
Revenge. I want to know why that smuggler is here."
The Knightfall fell in behind the ship. "Ready the tractor beams."
Rachel commanded. She looked at the data before her, waiting for the right moment to
capture the smuggler..... 'Or is it a Jedi?' She would know soon enough.
"Engage tractor beam." She smiled tightly as the ship bucked and tried to flee,
but was inevitably drawn in to the Star Destroyer.
Thix came out of hyperspace over the rebel base. He immediately noticed that the
base's capital ships were gone. "Where's Hendrikson's ships?" Thix wondered
aloud.
He pulled his X-Wing over a platform and let it drop to the landing surface with a thud.
He got out of his ship and looked around. The whole base was so empty. A couple
technicians walked over and began the post-mission checks on Thix's ship and the other
Green squadron X-Wings.
Thix questioned one. "Hey, where's all of the ships and fighters?"
"Oh, you haven't heard? The Empire attacked Sullust! We're engaged right now...but things don't look so good."
Thix un-strapped his helmet and tossed it into his X-Wing. "How bad are things?"
"I'd say the odds are 100 to one. If I were the General, I'd pull out. There are other major blaster corporations."
"One hundred to one?!" Thix set out at a jog to a door in the side of the hangar bay that would lead to the docking bay for Yellow Squadron. It slid open with a hiss, and all Thix saw inside were grease stains on the floor and some R2 units scurrying around. So that was that. Two of only four of his friends here on the base had been moved to a battle where the odds were a hundred to one. He hoped Becky and Hendrikson were okay. He pulled two slips of flimsy out of his pocket and looked at them longingly. He hoped he would get the chance to use these.
Aria was fuming, waiting to be boarded.
'Great!! You could have cleared outta here with a cool 225,000 credits and instead what
do you do? You get yourself captured, that is what you do!'
"Well, no point in crying over spilled milk. Time to find a way out of this Sarlaac belly-style situation." Aria quickly hid her holdout blaster and three thin strips of metal in her suit. "Well, you do know how to have a party." With that Aria stored her credits in her smugglers case and turned on her static dampers. It would take them hours to get through the interference to find her stash of cash. With a sigh, Aria waited to be boarded.
A full squad of stormtroopers broke in to Bandork's Revenge, blaster rifles
held ready. They began to make a systematic search of the ship. Aria found herself wishing
that she had somewhere better to hide.
Two white-armored soldiers stomped toward her. One spotted her and signaled the rest of
the squad. "She appears unarmed." The stormtrooper's filtered voice reached
Aria's ears.
She smiled grimly. Not unarmed, but she had better attack now, before the rest of the
squad appeared. She jumped up, snapping off two quick shots that sent the troopers flying.
She ran into a side corridor for she knew her ship better than the Imps, and this way to
the hatch might be safer. Her luck held true however; she ran into two more stormtroopers.
And behind those two, even more were waiting.
The Sword of Hecate appeared in orbit over Yavin IV. The blood red painted ship hovered over the moon like a giant sword, it blocked sight of the gas giant Yavin, casting an ominous shadow on the planet below. Mara looked up and shivered, "Why me?"
Luke held her, "It's going to be all right Mara, that ship hasn't enacted
hostilities. Let's go back inside and try to contact it."
The monitor in the communication room showed a message was already waiting for them. The
screen was blank, but a woman's voice called out, ~Help us, please! Our ship is on
self-destruct, you must help us, if you don't, our ship and your home will be destroyed!~
Luke hesitated, but Mara stopped him, "No! It's one of her tricks, Luke, please, don't she'll destroy you!"
Luke shook his head, "I must go, there could be people on that ship."
Mara clenched her fists, "Fine, go ahead, but if you find anything suspicious, please return to me as fast as you can."
Luke turned to look at her, "I will." Mara shivered as she watched Luke depart, and then watched the academy's Lambda shuttle ascend into the sky. Mara remained on the balcony and waited for his return.
15 minutes later...
On board the Sword of Hecate, Luke made his way to the bridge, suddenly he lost all sensation, the Force was gone!
"Ysalamiri! She was right, this is a trap!" Luke spun around and saw a tall silver droid with a large gun, before Luke could strike, the droid made it's move and Luke fell to the floor limp.
Mara was still on the balcony an hour later. She felt cold and she had a bad feeling, a feeling that something was going terribly wrong, both for Luke on that ship and at the academy. She ran from the main temple and saw the Imperial shuttle. "Damn! Stormtroopers on Yavin IV!" The wind picked up suddenly and Mara saw the heavens open and a huge black funnel spiraled down and gathered her up. She screamed in terror as she was tossed about, then thrown in a Holding Cage. She couldn't get out, she was trapped, then she heard the mocking laughter in her head.
~How are you, my new apprentice?~
Mara screamed, "SHUT UP!"
Mumar laughed, ~Good, good, give in Mara, give into your hatred, your anger, your fear, your aggression, give in, and your path to the dark side will be assured and your soul will be mine!~
Mara shook her head, "Never! Where is Luke?"
Mumar told her bluntly, ~I have your Master, and now I will have my revenge, darling enemy.~ She laughed and her doppleganger faded away.
The Sword of Hecate left Yavin IV and made it's way across hyperspace to Deominia. The captain reported, "Lady Mumar, the prisoners will be in your hands shortly."
Things were definitely looking down again. Imperial Craft were still exploding on
the Gemini's mines, and that was excellent, but the sheer numbers of the Imperial fleet
was mind boggling. The Retaliation had lost it's shielding and an engine, and since
the Carriers had more personnel and equipment than some of the other ships, Hendrikson
ordered it to fall back to the rendezvous where they'd launched the "strike &
fades."
He watched it go. With it went a quarter of his fighting force. It was nearly time to give
up, unless Tashannoc had some untried and unheard of battle tactic up his sleeve.
The Sword of Hecate emerged from the Deominian cloud and vetured to the homeworld of de Devastator. A Sentinel-class Shuttle dropped out of the hangar and flew to the planet. The shuttle came to rest on a landing platform outside of Domino's palace and stormtroopers marched off the craft. Four men coordinated to transport Mara's holding cage from the shuttle.
Mara looked around and saw some other troopers carrying a tall silver cylinder into the palace. Mara shivered, sneering at the stormtroopers, "What's in there, buddy?"
The stormtrooper snapped back, "A present for you from Lady Mumar, NOW SHUT UP!"
Mara felt her rage overtake her and wished she had her lightsaber so she could escape and cut off the trooper's head. Another trooper approached and stunned her. "Be quiet. You have no need for any knowledge of what takes place here."
30 minutes after, she awoke in a white chamber, Mumar stepped in she gave a mocking laugh. "By the Dark Side, I finally have you!"
Mara shouted, "Fine, you can have me, but let Luke go!"
Mumar kneeled and grabbed Mara's chin in her hand, "Honey, your beloved Jedi
Master is here and he will always be with you. GAZE
UPON YOUR GUILT!!!" A wall in the chamber turned and the room went black, the
cylinder opened to a blue-white light, inside was Luke, suspended in ice, his eyes closed.
Mara put her hands on the glass, she started to cry, she felt Mumar across from her.
Mara screamed and again wished for her lightsaber.
"Oh my! She wants to fight! But we will fight outside! You don't want your Master see me defeat you!"
Mara's hatred rose, she chased Mumar outside. The Sith Priestess tossed a lightsaber to the former Hand of the Emperor then flipped behind Mara and slashed her back. Mara screamed in pain then lashed out and struck at Mumar full force. Mumar blocked her strike and used her Sith Power to slam Mara against the palace wall.
Domino looked down from his balcony and considered these events. "Yes, get her Mumar. Destroy this wench and get your petty concerns dealt with so that we can once again work to restore the Sith Empire."
Mumar began to push Mara back, slashing at her. As soon as they reached the top of the hill by the palace, Mumar slashed off Mara's hand that held the lightsaber. Mara screamed, as she gripped her arm and stumbled into a hidden pit of molten metal. Mumar laughed madly as she heard Mara's screams then leaned over the pit and extended her hand to Mara. "Accept the dark side and I will heal you."
Mara screamed, "Never, let me die!"
Mumar used her powers to lift Mara out of the pit. "I will not let you die, I will give you life! GIVE IN TO THE DARK SIDE NOW!"
Mara sobbed, "I have no choice, yes, I will."
Zannah, one of Mumar's handmaidens, took Mara's severed hand and put it in a small cylinder then she picked up the saber. "Milady, what shall I do with this hand."
Mumar ministered over Mara's wounded body with ancient Sith techniques. "Send the hand with a note to the Rebel Alliance. We shall be waiting for their surrender."
MOVE ON TO PART IV
RETURN TO THE
ARCHIVES
This page hosted by Geocities
Get your own Free Home Page