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« Reply #18 on: December 28, 2018, 12:47:43 PM » |
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Chapter 4: No Hiding Place Syris, Outer Rim 5 ABY
The Hope erupted from hyperspace with a blue flash, the stretching of pseudomotion resolving as the ship's ion drives fired up and took over, pushing the battered light freighter toward the smuggler's moon. In the cockpit Alex and Joanna both breathed a sigh of relief - they'd planned a fuel stop along the way at Nar Shaddah but had turned away and jumped immediately back into hyperspace when a Star Destroyer with the same markings as the Interdictor they'd encountered had been detected. The quick change of plans had likely preserved their freedom but it had been a real risk; their fuel reserves were dangerously low due to the ... irregular ... depletion and they'd been reduced to running in low-power mode and eating e-rats for the last several days.
But they were here, with a few grams of fuel remaining, and fortunately the ion engines used an entirely different fuel source, and the Hope still had plenty of sub-light bunkerage available. Joanna locked in the autopilot and sat back in her seat, relaxing for the first time in days.
"Steady on course 127 Mark 99, tracking on the primary approach beacon."
"Navicomputer is interfaced with local traffic control..." Alex tapped keys, selecting files and placing them in the queue. "Spectre files sent ... and accepted. We are cleared for pad Besh-twelve."
"Autopilot has the beacon. Twenty-seven minutes to re-entry, fourty-two to landing." Joanna grinned at him. "And two hours to Giuseppie's and some real food!"
"Sounds good to me!" Alex returned her grin as he spun out of the chair. "Heads up! We're fourty minutes out, about half that to atmosphere. Strap in, it could be a bumpy..." Alex stumbled as a wave of nausea swept over him. He paused at the entrance to the common area, dry-swallowing as the sensation shifted to a cold chill running down his back. "What the..."
He looked up and saw Donovan shaking his head as well, his face white. "Something..." He cocked his head, as if listening to something specific that only he could hear. "Something is happening. Now...." He swallowed again, shaking his head. "The song..."
"The song is in chaos. The crystals are at risk. We must flee." Elo'Na also looked shaken, and her eyes were clouded with worry. "Now."
Alex shook his head. "We can't, ma'am. We need fuel and provisions. Even if we expedite, we don't have the cash we'd need to get turned around quickly, not without attracting attention. A lot of attention. To stay covert..." Alex shrugged. "Probably twelve, fourteen hours before we can be assured of getting fuel and a food order delivered."
Donovan and Elo'Na shared a glance, the former with a look of vindication; the latter one of fear and dread. The old woman sighed. "Very well. It is necessary, as you said. Let us hope the Maker is gracious and the cost is midigated."
She turned and went back into the cabin the three healers shared, leaving Alex and Donovan in the cargo bay. "The song intensifies. Can you ... feel it?"
Alex nodded. "I feel the tension in the force. We're in for a fight, that's for sure." Alex folded his arms across his chest. "Any other details you can share from this ... song of yours?"
Donovan shook his head. "No. Just ... a fight. Soon."
Alex glanced up at the chronometer. "Ok. Thirty-nine minutes to planet-fall. I'll get the provisioning requests sent in, then we can prepare."
<<<< >>>>
Joanna had the Hope under manual control as they entered the landing pattern. Her hands moved with calm assurance, guiding the ship without effort as her eyes scanned the area. "There... Two O'clock..."
Alex followed her gaze and spotted the pair of upright wings marking the landing site of two Kom'rk transports. "Company." Alex looked back down the passageway. "Donovan! Two O'clock!"
"On it..." Donovan shifted his turret sight, frowning. "Kom'rk transports... Figure at least two strike teams plus an LZ security contingent..."
"More likely three twelve-man squads on the target and one on security." Jamason replied. "At least, that's how I would do it."
"Scanning with FLIR." Alex swung the passive array across the Kom'rk's as they passed by. "I have four heat sources on board each ship and what looks like nine or ten targets around the perimeter. Engines are still hot, they haven't been on the ground very long."
Donovan's head shot up. "How long?"
"A few minutes, half-hour at the most." Alex responded. "It explains why the crews are still aboard, they're probably still finishing the post-flight checks."
Donovan didn't reply. He closed his eyes and Alex heard him hum a tune, deep in his thoat. Alex heard the notes and for a moment he had the impression of a far more intricate song, something only half-remembered, but again he had no time to analyze it. With a flash he was aware of a strong pulse flashing outward in the force, and unlike the music there was no ambiguity here.
DANGER!
Donovan took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "A warning. In case we are in time."
Alex nodded, rewinding the FLIR scan. "Makes sense. Joanna, how close are we going to be to them?"
"Close. They're one aisle over and five bays down. Frankly I wish we were further away."
"Agreed. We need to take their base of operation first, then move against the strike team." Alex scratched his nose, thinking. "They're still consolidating their perimeter, but they really don't expect to get hit from behind. We need to strike hard and fast."
As the ship settled Donovan and Jamason joined them. "We're badly outnumbered. Can we stay covert long enough to achieve surprise?"
Alex nodded. "Leave that to me. I can cover our approach, just don't reach out with the force until we make contact. Opal!" Alex waved the Shard over. "Draw weapons, we're going to need fire support on this one."
"Agreed, friend Alex. May I assume deadly force is authorized?"
Alex nodded. "I would expect nothing less."
<<<< >>>>
The five of them moved quietly. Ahead, thermal scanners told the tail - three targets, two forward and one back. Most likely there were others around the bend that they couldn't see, but who would see anything that happened to their fellows in time to raise an alarm. Alex concentrated, dampening their presences, keeping them hidden from all organic senses. TO defeat the rest, they'd donned thermal blankets, killing their heat signatures at the price of comfort. Sweat soaked his back as they closed on the figures. Due to the blankets, only Opal was able to move freely.
Fortunately she was enough. The closest mercenary moved, his head twitching toward them and his rifle rising. "Conta...URK" Before he could even make his full contact report Opal moved, her droid body responding with lightning precision to the Shard's years of training and experience as a soldier and security officer. THe heavy blaster rifle fired three precise shots, the red bolts screaming down-range as one. Each blast caught it's target precisely in the throat, insuring that no alarm could be raised.
But the cat was out of the bag now. Opal continued to lead the way, rounding the corner and firing two more shots immediately. "Five down..."
"Copy" Alex replied, moving quickly to clear the corner. They had a long corridor to traverse and one more dog-leg turn before entering the merc's landing bay. They broke into a run, Joanna following close behind him while the Mak'Tor moved along the opposite wall. Ahead, Opal crossed the final threshold and entered the bay. "Opal, pull back!"
"Come and get it, squishies!" Opal yelled, pouring fire from both her rifle and a heavy blaster pistol as she moved into the bay. The four humans threw off their thermal coverings and limbered up their own weapons as they followed her into battle. Ahead of them the mad Shard was like a super-nova of energy. Her movements looked awkward and clumsy at first, but Alex realized that the Shard was moving in a very random and hard to predict way. The result looked like someone staggering and struggling not to fall down, but was in fact fully controlled and made her a very hard target indeed. But more importantly, as the four humans emerged behind her, she had drawn the full attention of the entire perimeter force. A force that she continued to reduce even as her friends engaged behind her.
Alex dropped the force cloak as he emerged, igniting his saber and reaching out with the force to grab a Mando mercenary taking careful aim at Opal from a high perch. With a metaphysical pull he dragged the mercenary over the rail, driving him into the ferrocrete landing pad. His saber spun up as he moved and he could feel his wife behind him, covering him as he moved along the perimeter. The Knights split away, each of them charging into one of the grounded transports and dealing with its crew while Alex, Joanna and Opal continued to take out the perimeter team.
It took Alex two minutes to complete his perimeter sweep and his saber hummed in his hand as he let his senses flow over the bay perimeter. "Clear, four down."
"Clear." Joanna called. "Three down."
"Clear, four down." Donavan said, emerging from the first shuttle, his own saber extinguished.
"Clear, four down" Jamason echoed. "I have a live computer here, working to access."
"Clear, four down, one captured." Opal said. She emerged from behind the far transport, dragging a weakly moving form in badly damaged armor into the open. "Perhaps this one may assist us in our inquiries?"
Opal dropped the Mando onto the ground and stepped back. Alex tossed his head toward the near transport. "Jamason has a live computer, see if you can help him out. We'll ... talk to our friend here."
Opal looked down at the still form, back at Alex and simply nodded before turning and loping toward the grounded transport. Alex watched her go, the looked at Joanna. "Perimeter."
Joanna also simply nodded, her eyes veiled as she turned away and began scanning the approaches to the pad. Alex extinguished his saber, clipped it to his belt, and knelt down. He removed the man's helmet, revealing a face of chiseled features marred by years of weathering and battle scars. Alex calmed his mind, focussing his attention on the force, reaching out with his hand, his mind, seeking contact...
A hand on his arm interrupted him. "Alex ... you know what you're doing, right?"
Alex pulled back and sighed. "Yes, Donovan, I know the techniques ... and what they cost."
Donovan met his eyes. "Be quick." His blade ignited and he began his own patrol of the perimeter, leaving Alex to his task.
Alex sighed again and re-focused, reaching out with the force. His hand made contact with the Mandalorian's forehead, intensifying the sensation of connection as Alex followed the pathways highlighted by the force and plunged into the other man's mind. The delve was fast and intense, the mind damaged already by trauma and lack of oxygen. Alex could feel connections breaking as he moved, his clumsy damage enhanced by his haste to find what he was looking for. Pathways collapsed around him like shattering crystal until he saw it...
Alex jerked back, emerging from the delve as the Mandalorian expired, breathing his last. He shuddered, then stood. "Donovan!"
"Yo!"
"Donovan, contact your medical mission, they're about to be overrun."
<<<< >>>>
Russ'alor Slaad crouched behind a pillar as blaster bolts splattered overhead. "Besh team, move now, Cresh cover. Aurek, hold and prepare to follow Besh."
Around him the twelve members of Besh leaped up and advanced, firing blasters and grenades. The bolts mainly found harmless walls, but three were deflected back by rapidly moving lightsaber blades, and all of the grenades were stopped in mid-air and thrown back in the faces of the attackers.
They exploded harmlessly, the flash-bangs meant only to be a distraction and the effects were mitigated by the mercenary's armor. Two of them fell, hit by defected bolts before they reached the next group of cover positions.
Now ten, Besh continued firing from cover as Aurek rose up and followed them, also losing a pair of troopers in their rush.
Cresh and the small command group followed in turn, each losing a trooper, bleeding men to gain ground as they advanced deeper into the heavily fortified enclave.
Slaad cursed under his breath as he settled into his new position. Nine down so far... Rhul Stour expected him to take this enclave, and he intended to do it, but the cost was mounting. Two of the half-dozen Knights holding it had also gone down but the rest were fighting hard and had apparently been warned in time to arm themselves and implement defensive measures that were turning his lighting raid into a slugging match. Costly ... but it's a fight we will win, unless something else goes wrong.
Which it immediately did.
Besh had just emerged to repeat their leap-frogging motion when two saber-armed knights hit them from behind, cutting through their ranks like buzz saws. Reaction from Aurek and Cresh was nearly instantaneous, but suprise was total and the three Knights fought like banshees. Worse, as the mercs turned to engage they were instantly attacked by the two remaining knights within the compound as well. In addition accurate blaster fire opened up from across the street, making it impossible for the mercenaries to cover effectively against either force. They still outnumbered the Jedi four-to-one, but against well-trained force users...
Slaad knew they were beaten. He also knew what the penalty for a second failure against these Mak'Tor would be, and there were far better ways to die than at the hands of Rhul Stour making an example of him for others...
And this way I can maybe take one or two with me...
Slaad's communications tech and aid were already engaged with one of the Jedi, the one who had led the reinforcements on Peg Shar. His purple blade was a flashing streak of light as he closed, deflecting blaster bolts and melee weapons with equal skill. His men would last only seconds...
Slaad lifted the rocket launcher, aimed and fired. The Jedi reacted, screaming a name, his careful defense replaced by a furious attack. Slaad had a momentary feeling of satifaction, of knowing he'd at least hurt the bastards, before a purple-white flame severed his head from his body and all thought ended forever...
<<<< >>>>
"Joanna! Incoming!" Alex reached into the force and found a more direct pathway, hammering aside the two Mandalorians who had attempted to flank his
attack as the third raised a rocket launcher and aimed it toward Joanna's position across the street ... and fired.
"JOANNA!!!!" Alex lunged forward, his blade sweeping, but he was to late. The rocket leaped away, flying low across the street and slamming into the
stick stone facade Joanna was sheltered behind. Rock chips flew and Alex had a fleeting view of his wife spinning away from the explosion. Before
the Mandalorian's severed head hit the ground Alex was pounding toward his wife, bounding with force-enhanced leaps to reach her.
<<<< >>>>
Donovan finished off the last Mando mercenary, his blade swinging through an orbit before coming around and clashing with another Knight's blade. "Sif!"
"Don" Koawan Sif'an'Cam grinned at her childhood friend. "Just in time. You never could resist a dramatic entrance, could you?"
"Nope." His eyes softened slightly. "I am glad we were in time to help."
"Me, too. Your warning gave us just enough time to get the auto-turrets online and pull everyone back into the defensive perimeter. Without that..."
"Glad to help." Donovan grinned, then his face changed. "Joanna..."
"Who?" Sif questioned, then turned at the sound of movement behind her.
Framed in fire, Alex shuffled forward, his wife unconscious and bleeding in his arms. "Help me, please?"
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