Final Part For Chapter 1:
The Leading Storm Trooper clung behind a thick tree while 335 stayed hidden on the ground behind a fallen over one, reaching over the top and firing his rifle with one hand. Sparks, flame and wood chips exploded around them both as the Auto Blaster kept on firing between the both of them, pinning them down.
“Hurry! Send back up!” shouted the leading Trooper into a portable comm device in his free hand before the tree suddenly sundered behind him, knocking him forward with in a fiery blaze.
“Huh!?” 335 gasped as he looked over at his commanding officer blasted down. Then suddenly nothing, there was no sound, no laser bolts whizzing by, and everything seemed to have calmed down. Cautiously he peaked up over the log to check the situation and spotted the blaster was no longer targeting him, but rather staying stationary as the end of the barrel smoked. Maybe it was depleted he thought. With only a moments hesitation he started to back up and then made a mad dash for it.
The Auto Blaster Turret then pivoted and fired a single bolt through his back, and a burning rupture of sparks showered forth from his chest. A second later he dropped to his knees, and then collapsed over onto his face unmoving.
~*~
Sparks rained down as blaster bolts whizzed by. He felt pinned and extremely frustrated with the current turn of events. Not only was his plan and position jeopardized, he had to contend with a bounty jumper. Not any bounty jumper either, but one he knew quite well from reputation and a few encounters in the past. Just that none of them ended up like this.
“Sabril!” shouted Kase, “Why are you doing this!?”
At that moment he witnessed his quarry, Mallark starting for the opened doorway, taking his chance that he obvious saw finally to flee. Kase quickly raised up the rifle and took a few pot shots at the door frame, forcing Jan to fall back in behind a bunch of barrels. Their eyes met and even with the helmet on, Kase's expression and intent was loud and clear. “Stay in cover!”
“Oh, you know, just taking this wamprat off your hands!” she finally answered.
Then she made her way leftward keeping the firing up to make sure her rival remained in cover as she attempted to get in closer to the target. A smile formed upon her lips as she enjoyed how things were shaping up in her favour. Eventually she stopped the onslaught of blaster fire and waited, but then fired again as Kase tried to peak out. “Come now, I just want you to stay right... where you are, Lero.”
“Well... you're not giving me much choice!” Kase replied checking his rifle over, then knelled down as he slung the duffel bag around, and began to search his gear for a device. It only took a few seconds, but finally he found it, and retrieve a small holo-puck.
“No,” she exclaimed, continuing on her way around to the front of the cargo dock, trying to get in around to Mallark, “I don't suppose I am!” Just when she came around the bend and Kase would have been in her view, there was no one there in sight. “Now where did you go!?”
“You there!” came a shout from the far other side of the room towards the far end, drawing Sabril's attention.
Just as she saw the holo-graphic Storm Trooper she quickly turned back to where Kase would have been and fired.
The bolt ricocheted off the cargo container, as well as sent sparks showering down around over Kase as he quickly slid back around the side of it. Cursing under his breath he slowly edged to take another peak and quickly moved out of the way of another blaster bolt.
“Damn cyborg....,” he muttered, “How about this!? We split the bounty!?”
“Let me think about it!” she shouted back, genuinely thinking it over for a whole two seconds, then quickly pressed a switch on panel on the side of her belt with her free hand. “No!” She fired again, blasting sparks all over the place, making sure to keep her rival remained pinned down. She really needed this pay out badly.
“You there! Halt!” shouted another voice.
“Ain't falling for that again!” she exclaimed with a bit of a smirk, though it soon faded as she saw movement from the corner of her eye, and turned to see seven Troopers rush in from the opened, hexagonal doorway on the side of the room Kase was on, just closer tot he far end.
“Blast them! Blast them both!” shouted Mallark finally as he rose up from behind the barrels and pointed in both Kase's location, and at Sabril. “Agh!” shouted Jan making him drop down behind the barrels again once a blaster bolt grazed his left shoulder, coming from where Kase was hiding.
“Over there! Blast them!” shouted the front line Trooper.
They all opened fire in both directions, covering them in scorch marks as sparks flew and debris rained down upon the ground. Now things went from bad to worse, as it would appear these troopers had some decent aim.
Sabril and Kase both shared a look once he had removed his helmet. Both of them understood what they had to do to get out of this mess. Holding onto their respective blaster weapons they waited a brief moment, then quickly Sabril activated her jetpack, flew up and over, drawing both her pistols now and opened up upon the Troopers. Kase dashed with great speed over toward Mallark's position while he was busy rolling out of cover to try and escape yet again. With desperation to try and catch up, Kase managed to increase his speed to an almost inhuman dash, part of him didn't understand what was happening but he wasn't going to stop to question it either as he made it over. Grabbing the Imperial by the back of the collar he quickly marched him along towards a parked speeder.
“Come on! Get in the speeder! -Now!” he shouted while firing at the increasing number of Troopers that entered in from the side door. He managed to hit a few with blind fire, but a few nearly got a little too closer for comfort with their shots as well, and he quickly leaped into green and navy accented speeder's driver's seat. He went about starting up the engine without even glancing at the controls, allowing his feelings to guide him while training his attention upon the incoming Troopers and now dropping more of them like Mynocks.
“You got this!?” he shouted over the raging blaster fire up to Sabril who landed atop of a towering stack of crates, down upon one knee and continued to rapid shoot away.
She just gave him a glare that said “You blasted wamprat don't you!”
After he hit the throttle he was gone through the opened hanger door, leaving her behind to handle things on her own. The speeder made it's way over the landing area for drop ships, and even passed by a couple that were being worked on by repair personnel. They seemed to watch as they flew by, and not fully realizing what was happening, along they swore they saw their Leader being yanked into the front seat on the passenger's side.
“What's going on?” asked a Dock Worker.
“I dunno, they don't pay me enough to ask questions....,” replied his Partner as he was wiping a tool he was using, before walking back into the shuttle's hatch.
Kase managed to keep the Warlord at bay with his blaster rifle stuck to his side, threatening to pull the trigger ir he so much as flinched in the opposite direction. Things seemed to work out in his favor now, though he wasn't too sure for how long that would last. He only gained a head start, and she was porting some fancy travelling gear now. With a few flipped switches, and button presses he managed to increase the power output of the finned quad-tube repulsar engines, causing them to give a quick, amped up wheezing-buzz giving them an extra boost of speed.
~*~
Sabril found herself now pinned down by the increased number of Troopers, but at least there was only eight of them in total, and their aim wasn't as good as the last ones it would seem. “Dank Farrik” she cursed with a tone of relief in her voice. Then seeing her chance she leaped down into the fray, firing both blasters in hand and taking down four ot them in rapid succession. Landing on one knee she holstered her blasters and waited for the last of them to make their decision.
The Storm Troopers just looked to one another, uncertain at first of their target's game plan. Then their commanding Trooper turned to the two one on his left and said, “Go after them, we'll take her in.”
A smirk formed upon Sabril's shiny, purple lips after hearing that. Then she waited for them to make the first move, which they didn't take long in doing. Slowly she bowed a little forward and the two poles on the top of her jetpack came to life. They popped up and pivotred down, targeting a Trooper each as a holographic visor formed over her eyes, and took them down with a blaster bolt to their heads, then the next two, making short work of them.
Once that was taken care of she made her way over to middle of the hanger bay, and looked into the distance with her visor still up, increasing the magnification. It managed to bring up a medium sized visual of the escaping speeder, then closed blast door gate that was up ahead, and still closed. That too brought a smirk to her face as she knew this was her chance to catch up. Gently she crouched down, leaned forward, and then pushed off with her jetpack at full burn into the air.
~*~
Jan continued to baby his shoulder while they raced along the open platforms onto the dirt road. Then looking up ahead he noticed the blast door gate was shut, and there was no ramps leading up either side of the white, towering, ringed gate around the complex either. “You fool,” he admonished, “You have no where to escape to!”
“You better signal them to open the blast doors up then,” Kase said as he nudged Jan in the wounded shoulder.
“Ow!” Jan cried and winced in pain, “Blast you!”
“Signal the base to open the doors!”
Then suddenly a gunmetal dropship with twin, wing mounted engines appeared over top of the main gate. Kase and Jan looked to each other neither one unable to believe the day they were having, but the Imp simply smirked and chuckled to himself, figuring at least he would not be his bounty, and quite possibly he might be able to weasel his way out of that other Hunter's clutches through credits. At the very least it was worth a shot. Kase on the other hand was having none of it, and just as he was about to change course, the dropship exploded from a barrage of twin large bolts.
“NOO!! DANK FARRIK!” was heard over the twining sound of the speeder's engines.
All three parties however were not drawn towards the machine that was fast approaching with heavy, clunking foot falls. Once they bared witness, only Kase and the flying Sabril both watched wide-eyed at the appearance of an Imperial AT-ST Walker. Now things were getting a little more serious with that kind of fire power on the field.
Coming in close towards the fallen wreckage that landed on an angle against the front of the main gate, Kase quickly throttled down and spun the control wheel to the left, causing the Speeder to slide to a stop while it clunk against the burning heap. Before he could think the Walker managed to shoot through the middle of the glass of the windshield, exploding the it into pieces as well as grazing the front of the hood, and causing a small crater upon the ground before them.
Jan quickly got up onto a knee and started shooting his mouth off after that, “You imbecile, I'm in here!”
A barrage or red bolts struck the side of the box-y Imperial Mech just as Sabril flew on by, firing both blaster pistols and her pack's laser guns, which seemed to draw away the craft's attention slightly. Still while she flew on passed it's view, above the arc of the laser cannons, she continued to open fire from all four weapons into eyes of the Walker's command center. Screams of rage emanated from her while she did so as well, the rage was just fuming within her now at the loss of her ship, and even though he weapons did little to that armor, it felt good to just open fire upon the mech.
Then before it took another pot shot, Kase slammed down the throttle and flew ahead away from the heap and turned about to face the approaching “Chicken Walker”, and throttle down again. As it approached Kase revved up the engines over and over, building up the power. When he felt that machine was distracted enough, he throttled up the drive again and hit the accelerator to the floor right for the pigeon-toed machine.
“What are you doing?” asked Jan Mallark, the uneasy sensation filling his pit of a stomach as he watched the long haired Hunter smirk, then turn his attention back to the machine as they continued to approach at top speed.
“Like I said, I'm crazy!” Kase exclaimed.
Jan nodded with a disgruntled murmur, and wide-eyed disbelief, “Uh-huh...”
Meanwhile the Walker continued to try and fire it's main guns at the flying assailant to no avail. She was just too quick for them, and so one of the two operators attempted to pop out of the cockpit from the top hatch, and opened fire with his sidearm. Only to be met with incoming fire as well, and was quickly neutralized by barrage of laser fire, sending sparks flying everywhere down into the cockpit, along with a heaping dead body.
Sabril felt satisfaction for the kill, and now if only she would get the other one, then she'd be able to put this to bed, then figure out the next step in her now new plan she was making up on the fly. It was then she noticed the charging Speeder, and even she was a little dumbfounded at what was happening, as well as a little impressed. “Gutsy” she said to herself, then did a barrel roll out of the way as two large, bolts of super-heated plasma came her way and missed by mere inches.
The Imperial Walker's driver then noticed the approaching Speeder and tried to backpedal itself up a bit to avoid what seemed to be an on-head collision from what he could see. Still he managed to watch the vehicle on his sensor display and tried to get another lock-on. It only took a couple of seconds for him to achieve it and quickly brought a smile to the driver's black goggled face. “I have you now.”
“I have a bad feeling about this!” Jan shouted, then risked trying to leap out of the Speeder.
Kase allowed it and just kept on going, but just then he felt this strange sensation to quickly shift out of the way and did so, just as two bolts of explosive energy struck the ground where he once was. He then felt the sensation again and quickly moved in that direction, and another two bolts struck the ground, sending charred dirt up into the air around him. Another blast rocked him a little as it struck just before him, and sent debris up all around him, while the explosion caused the Speeder to bounce. Still he throttled to full power and continued his advancement. Kase was not going to let the incoming fire dissuade him from what he was trying to do.
Mashing the accelerator down again he pushed onward while his eyes never left the gaze of the Imp Pilot within the cockpit window. He could sense that he was making him uncomfortable now, and part of him relished that. Now he had an edge and was one-hundred percent positive his plan was about to work.
Jan however rolled along the dirt and grassy-patched ground to stop before watching what was taking place. Staggering to his feet he grabbed his aching shoulder, and then started to hurry off, until suddenly feeling himself being lifted back up into the air again. “What the!?”
“Where do you think you're going, bucko?”
“Unhand me!” shouted Mallark then relized how high was getting into the air and decided it was within his best interest to stay silent.
Still continuing to try and back away from the approaching Speeder the Pilot began to get worried of the approaching impact and quickly tried to turn the Walker away. At the same time Kase shifted the Speeder around, as he watched the legs begin to trip up a little, causing the machine to start to lose it's footing, he reached out his hand and concentrated his thoughts and feelings, and gave the clumsy mech a well needed push, sending it flopping over onto it's side with a loud crash and bang. Panels flipped off, the top hatch opened up wide, then slowly closed to about a crack. Smoke trailed off the motors, and the laser cannons were now too bent to risk firing.
Kase let out a good laugh at what he had just accomplished, and could hardly believe it himself that it worked, but it did. Quickly turning the vehicle around he scanned around the field for his escaped quarry and then noticed up in the air, Sabril coming in with him in hand, and dropped him into the back seat of the Speeder before taking off for the fallen Walker.
“Don't leave without me!” she shouted as she took off, and quickly started to reach around her belt, into one of the pouches.
“Right....,” he said and quickly spun the Speeder around again, and headed right for the burning heap of a dropship, this time hitting full throttle yet again. Only this time he attempted to send a boost of power through the underside's repulsar lift, programming it through the main console. Seeing that it was barely able to give the boost he needed, he attempted to by-pass it after breaking open the panel in the passenger's side, and switched around a few wires. It didn't take too long to show a more powerful surge building up on the little HUD display, with white bared graphics that blinked red. “Now that should work...”
“What are you doing!?” Jan questioned loudly over the engines, and noticed they were heading right for the burning mess that was now just a buckling, flaming ramp over the gate. “You can't be serious!? Oof!”
Kase decked him with a snap of a back-fist, knocking him out into the back seat and shouted, “Settle down!” That felt good, and made him wonder why he didn't do that any sooner. With that over with he punched it to max burn and flew like a gundark out of hell towards the blazing, mangled wreck of a ramp.
Sabril landed into a crouch near the top of the fallen Walker. She had a thermal detonator in her right hand and pushed the trigger switch up with her thumb as the door started to open, with the pilot attempting to stumble out. Quickly the Huntress commanded the backpack laser guns to pivot and open fire, sparks sprayed in both directions, making the pilot hurry back into the hole he just climbed out of, and before he could draw his blaster, Sabril threw the grenade in, and kicked the door shut. A second later she activated the jetpack and made a swift exit as the door suddenly opened again, only to have the explosion take out the Walker and her pilot in a blaze as he let out a weird, high-pitched scream.
It was then she noticed the Speeder heading over towards her wrecked ship. With a slight shake of her head, and a disapproving glare she quickly shot off towards them.
Speeding as fast as the vehicle could go, he watched and waited till coming right up on the burning heap of a ramp, timing it. With the flick of a switch he felt the front of the Speeder pop up as if it were doing wheelie and quickly shifted up, then once he felt he was close enough hit the throttle back down, and slammed down the accelerator. With a much needed burst of speed the vehicle charged up through the flames, along the scorched metal ramp, and flew up and over the gate. Coming down the other side caused a not to twist in his stomach, but Kase managed to hold on as he approached ground. With another flick of the switch, though briefly, he was able to pull the Speeder into a quick swoop back to normal and then pushed onward down the rocky pathway.
“Woah...,” he muttered under his breath, even though he was able to relax, that five or so seconds of sheer terror certainly woke him up. Fortunately it didn't distract him as he could feel the presence of Sabril getting closer, and then felt a bit of a dip in the backseat. Yet, before she was able to draw her blaster, he already had the rifle aimed back at her. “Sit down!”
“You think you can just leave me here!?” she exclaimed, holstering her blaster after realizing wherever she moved, his rifle followed without him even looking. “Well then....”
“Not like you wouldn't have done the same to me, Sabril!” he shouted back, “Just watch over him. He moves, knock him out again!”
“Well that's neither here nor there, and they blew up my ship, not yours!” she shouted back.
“Not my problem!”
“It is now, bucko!”
“Right....” replied Kase as he put the rifle down and just focused on the road.
Then it hit her, they were probably going to be followed by the rest of the base after all that commotion they brought on. Thankfully she planned ahead, and quickly turned around in the backseat, and brought up another thumb-sized, trigger device, and pressed it down. A couple moments later there was a muffled explosion, followed by several more, then came the billowing clouds of smoke that rose up into the sky above where the Imperial base laid, as exterior seemed to collapse down behind the white gate that ringed around the base. It brought a small smirk to her lips, then she spun back around and attempted to enjoy the ride.
“That solves that problem,” she said to herself as she placed her hands behind her head, and crossed her legs while leaning back against the beige, cushioned seat.
~*~
He pulled up into the clearing where his ship was, and there it had remained right where he parked it last. Several pops echoed out of the back end of the vehcile, as smoke trailed out of the scorched and damaged front end. Although the ground was now littered with bodies of dead Storm Troopers. Certainly it had seemed like they've seen some action before they arrived, and Kase hoped they were alright. From the look of things there was no scoring upon the ship either, but the Auto Blaster turret was still deployed, though smouldering from the end of the barrel now. He figured it was overheated.
Just when he pulled in around the front of the half-circular ship and brought it to a rolling stop, the ramp slowly deployed with a hiss and steam jets from under the wing that had the sat-dish pod attached to it. Then suddenly a small, brown-orange cloaked figure hoped down, holding a large barrel, hand blaster of sorts,a nd quickly pointed it in multiple directions before finally lowering it.
“Clear! Clear! And Clear!” Chur barked in Huttese and then spun back around to face his Captain. “What kept you!?”
“I was a little tied up, but got our bounty all the same,” Kase explained, pointing to the unconscious, lumped over form of Jan Mallark in the backseat with his thumb. Then he turned off the engine and hopped out of the Speeder.
“Yeah...?” said Chur, eyeing the brown haired woman in the back, “Who's she?”
“Your new partner in crime, my little friend!” she said, jumping out of hte back and waltzing around the rear of the Speeder.
“Passenger, not partner,” Kase stated firmly, then grabbed his duffel bag and marched around the front of the speeder towards the sleeping Jan, and Sabril who stood there leaning against the vehicle. “Your lucky I let you tag along, but that doesn't mean we're partners.”
“They blew up my ship, and I need the credits for a new one,” she quietly expressed with a hint of annoyance. “Couldn't we work something out where I can piggyback onto your crew for a while....,” she added, gently tracing a finger along the lines of the armored glove Kase had on still, “We could work well together.”
“You tried to steal my bounty, now you want me to trust you....”
“I'm sorry, but what's wrong with a little competition...?” Sabril asked mildly innocently, “Especially when things are all well and under control. When both parties have a way to get off world. Unlike now.”
“Sabril...,” Kase sighed, “I don't trust you as far as I can throw you...”
“With that trick of yours that I saw you pull on the Walker...,” she muttered under, eyes shifting to the side.
Kase let out another sigh, and just simply shook his head until he heard a cacophony of beeping and sounds as DG-40 came swirling down the ramp and into view of everyone. Kase turned about and walked a few steps ahead as he understood what the little egg-droid was saying.
“Imperial Corvette just jumped into orbit!” shouted Chur as he wailed both arms up into the air, then held onto his head while panicking.
“We have to go,” Kase said turning back to Sabril who was already hoisting the unconscious Warlord across her shoulders, using her Cyborg-like strength.
“We'll discuss this later,” they both said in unison, then hurried on board after DG, with Chur in toe.
~*~
After they boarded the ship it didn't take them long to take off for the atmosphere. It passed by some and flew through other clouds as it began it's ascent for space. The glow of the late afternoon sun shone brought against the bronze-brass hull of the half-circled vessel which had a long pod with a satellite dish on one side, and a round, puck-like dual gunnery pod on the other.
Inside the cockpit Kase worked the controls, and flipped a few of the switches above him on the upper panel, lighting up some panels, and activating the appropriate systems for entering space. Then suddenly they went out, and he slapped the side of the box panel, switching them back on again with a few sound echoing forth from the device. That was better, and sometimes you just needed a low tech solution to a high-tech problem during crunch time.
The middle door in the back of the confined, dual-seated cockpit swooshed open tot he right and left, and in came Sabril who braced herself against the right wall with one hand, and the other braced upon the top of Kase's seat as she leaned in. She was curious about the vessel she heard so much about from second-hand hearsay, and word-of-mouth. Honestly she was a little impressed with the clunker of a ship that seemed to be retrofitted quite a bit from what she was able to tell from he brief viewing of the interior.
“So this is the Gilded Glaive?” she asked while admiring the interior of the cockpit, and how Kase was piloting it, “Not bad.”
“Thanks, now take a seat, we're not out of the woodwork yet,” said Kase, punching a few more buttons up towards the top of the console. “It's gonna take a bit to get the coordinates from the navi-computer, and we got company incoming.”
Kase then attached a small, white headset to his right ear and began to speak into the small mic, “DG, man the guns.” Then he turned to Sabril and pointed to a panel on the wall with a bunch of toggle switches, miscellaneous coloured buttons and turn dials, “Wanna help? Angle the deflector shields.”
“Gotcha,” she answered and began to work the controls after taking the seat beside Kase.
~*~
On the far right of the ship, DG-40 rolled his way down a short corridor and into the circular, puck-shaped area of the vessel, where the top and bottom, twin tri-barrel auto-laser turrets were located. Though instead of the laddered tube down or up to the either turret, he plugged himself into a port in the wall. After a few turns of the extended, drill-like key-tool he managed to gain access tot he sensors and camera's within the twin turrets, and began to operate them with perfect synchronicity.
Then suddenly he beeped his response that he was ready over the com-link to the cockpit. Although the droid felt a pang of nervousness within it's circuitry, he was going to try his best to wipe out whoever came within his cross-hairs.
Up inside each turret station's main targeting computer powered up, and light up black, with red grid-like pattern that shifted into a split into two, one on top and the other bottom, while that target's image blinked into view in between the boarders. It was that of a TIE Fighter. Then several m more started to blink into various elevations for a total of four.
“Oh boy...,” meeped DG-40 as he turned his head and had this worried strae within the dark mono-eye, if a droid could have such a thing.
~*~
Harsh screams of the twin-ion engines roared as the four winged-ball shaped Fighter craft approached on an attack vector for the Gilded Glaive. Each one maned by a single, black suited pilot with the soul purpose of blasting them out of the sky.
Even Kase could feel their raging intent from a far as they approached. “Here they come,” he said under his breath.
“This is where the fun begins,” Sabril said giving Kase a smirk as she manned the other side of the main console, nad continued to watch the deflector shield status.
“You're go to open up on them, DG-40,” Kase said into the mic, and then began to work his hands upon the controls, making the ship tilt to an angle, and veer in between the four Fighters as they began to fire their laser cannons.
Explosions rocked along the surface of the Gilded Glaive as it passed in between them as the green botls struck the shields. Red bolts also returned in a circular pattern from above as so below, and managed to take one of them down ina fiery plum, at least one of the crafts in the lower, right hand corner. The rest managed to evade the incoming shots, and attempted to pursue them again, opening up as soon as their barrels were aimed within their general direction, regardless of the lock-on.
Green bolts struck along the top of the ship causing more explosive flashes along the shield, while inside the lights blinked off and on a few times, then came a few bursts of sparks from console stations and behind panels, due to the surge in the power grid. Then The three Fighters then came in a swarm and attacked from different angles, but the barrage being fired back made it that much more difficult for them, causing most of their shots to miss.
Quickly Kase managed to manoeuvre the Glaive into a barrel roll as the Fighter's regrouped and opened up again with their twin laser cannons. Several shots ricocheted off the angled deflectors thankfully. But then he noticed that several more were on an intercept course for them from orbit, once the sensor screen light up light a Christmas tree.
“Great,” Kase said under his breath, 'More of them.”
Sabril then noticed that the shields were weakened. “Rerouting power to deflectors,” she said, starting to press the appropriate buttons, and flipped up a few switches.
“No, we have to break out of the atmosphere,” he explained as he hit a few switches upon a nearby panel, “Just re-angle the deflectors while I divert power to the engines. I'm gonna punch us a hole.”
With that the Glaive righted itself on the ascent vector and blazed the four, cylindrical sub-light engines at full burn, which shone a bright orange-yellow hue. From the descent angle came another four TIE Fighters on an intercept course, their Ion Engines screaming at full speed through the air. Then suddenly they started to open fire, sending twin bolts of green plasma their way. Yet with the deflectors re-angled, most shots managed to bouce off, until one struck hard against the panel covering the shield generator.
“Generator's been hit!” Sabril exclaimed while attempting to activate the fire suppression-system. Then she started to re-angle the deflectors again to compensate the damage. “Compensating!”
~*~
In the engine bay Chur ran back and forth between the sub-light manifold and the shield console. Sparks were showering all over the place from damaged being sustained due to the power surges after those last few direct hits. Yet he managed to grab the right tools along the way to each area, and managed to do minor repairs, and fusions to some parts that were starting need to be re-routed and re-wired. At the very same time he complained endlessly in his native tongue, until stopping suddenly as he felt the ship perform another evasive, and placed a hand over his mouth, holding back the urge to hurl.
~*~
“Navi-computer confirms course for Nevarro!” yelled Sabril from the left wall console while she leaned up against it, bracing herself as the Glaive flew erratically around the incoming fire. “Any time now, Lero!”
“Hold on to something!” he shouted, and pulled a lever. Sabril's gut reaction was to grab the back of Kase's seat, and did so without a second thought just as the ship flew straight up, causing the two waves of reaming Fighters to collide into each other. Several of them exploded, but a couple manged to right themselves and give chase.
DG quickly spun around both turrets and took aim once more, this time with perfect accuracy as he opened up with a burst of red laser bolts from each set of barrels. Flurries of red plasma rained down upon the pursuing TIEs and struck gold, as one lost a wing, and the other took it right in the cockpit, leaving the explosive aftermath within their wake as they approached the stratosphere.
It didn't take them long to breach orbit, although the Imperial Raider Class Corvette was there lying in wait for them, probably charging up their tractor beam. That was thea assumption they all had as it came into view open the wide, opened cockpit window. It wasn't as big as a Star Destroyer, but it was pretty close enough. Still the sight of one of these things was terrifying all around, especially when on your own and no back-up to call upon. Capture meant certain death to any who were unfortunate enough to find themselves within the Imperial Remnant's clutches.
“Charge up the main gun,” Kase spoke into the headset.
“You're gonna attack them? Are you mad, Lero!?” questioned Sabril.
Kase turned his gaze to her a moment, letting her know he was indeed serious, but still he replied anyways to reassure her, “Trust me.”
“Ok then...,” she muttered and took a seat, checking the nearly depleted shields, and tried to yet again re-angle them. Even though knowing they wouldn't be up for long against the firepower of such a vessel.
~*~
The young, blond haired Lieutenant watched upon the monitor as the small, TZ-2500 Modded Corvette approached. Her face half covered in shadow, and half illuminated by light grid aesthetics from the consoles before her on the bridge. She was ever confident her crew, and felt rather proud to have arrived in the nick of time to save her Liege.
“Prepare the tractor beam!” she shouted to the operators, then turned her head to the left towards the gunnery stations, “Turbo Laser Batteries, disable them!”
“Aye, Lieutenant Coreli.” came the replies from both station commanders.
Upon the top and bottom of the engine block of the wedge-shaped Imperial vessel, small, square tractor beam projects deployed from hidden compartments. Along the port side of the hull, several turbo laser turrets began to pivot in the direction of the Gilded Glaive. Then suddenly they opened fire, sending dual bolts of green, destructive energy in their general direction.
~*~
“Switch deflectors tot he front, and divert power!” Kase ordered, then started to perform evasives.
Sabril followed through and quickly adjusted the shield's angles while tapping away on the console, diverting secondary power systems. Or at least what she assumed were the secondaries. It wasn't the main gun or the engines she was drawing from from what she could tell by the readout. “Done.”
The Glaive approached the onslaught of turbo laser fire from an attack vector, and quickly bobbed and weaved around several bolts, with only a few striking off the hull of the ship, flashing with minor explosions. Then as they came into range, their twin, forward cannons began to blast away, sending twin red bolts of energy back at the enemy vessel. One, two, three turbo laser turrets were struck by the incoming fire, while the rest strafed along the shielded hull, sending out explosive flashes. While the turrets surged and glowed with reddish-orange energy all over them, and they stopped moving and firing.
~*~
“They disabled some of our turbo lasers!” shouted an officer.
“Here they come on attack vector, three-one-four decimal two-seven!” shouted another from the sensor array stations.
“Increase fire power from the residing turrets!” Coreli shouted angrily as the panic began to settle in now realizing they had Ion tech aboard their vessel. “Re-angle our bridge deflector!”
“That won't be enough against Ion Cannons, ma'am,” replied her XO quietly.
“I do realize that, Lieutenant Jenkins!” she whispered sternly, then barked over tot he tractor beam stations, “Tracot beam!”
“Aye, sir!” came the replies.
“They will not escape once they try to fly passed our projectors, so it matters little if they disable some of our guns,” Coreli stated confidently, placing her hands behind her back as hse puffed out her chest proudly.
~*~
Switch the TZ 2500 rolled out of the way, then swooped under another barrage of lasers, then tilted to the right to help deflect another stray shot with the shield. All the while they continued their firing against the turrets, disabling them as they went, clearing a path over the ship. Then the closer they came to the bridge they opened up more upon it. Several bolts struck, sending a mild surges around certain parts of the ship.
“Chur, hit the jammer!” called Kase over the headset.
“Roger!” replied the Jawa engineer as he ran over to the station near on the front left of the engine room, and quickly brought up the jammer system. It didn't take long for him to set it up and begin the jamming sequence from the main dish. Still he was panicking as they were right close to the belly of hte beast now, regardless of how well things were going. The shields being what they were from the other readout made him that much more anxious.
“Jammer is broadcasting!” Chur stated over the comm-link.
Quickly the Claive spun around and around as Kase used the angled shields to deflect the rest of the bolts as they came at them from multiple directions. Explosive flashes rocked the hull however, sending surges through some of hte systems, like the ion cannons, and turrets, knocking them out as consoles exploded.
DG beeped long and loudly as he was jettisoned from the port in the wall by an arc of electricity, and smashed into the back wall.
“Alright, we're getting out of here,” said Kase as he punched the engines to full and pushed up a twin-barred throttle lever.
Sabril and him watched as the stars began to streak and in a blink of a n eye they jumped into hyperspace, entering the swirling, bluish energy tunnel.
~*~
“They... they... jammed our tractor beam,” said Jenkins as he marched up to Coreli as some of the lights came back on, revealing hte mute grey coloured interior of the bridge.
“Dank Farrik,” she cursed, slamming her hands against her station as she leaned foward against it. “They have our Leader too... Can we tract them?”
“They disabled our long range sensor array as well,” came Jenkins second report while glancing over towards the station, noticing the screens flickering and sparking.
“Lieutenants!” shouted another officer, “Our breaking thrusters won't fire! We're entering the stratosphere and I can't stop our decent!”
Coreli and Jenkins both shared a look of sheer terror as the news they just received. Neithr one of htem certain of what they were going to do about it. Losing or abandoning their ship was the last thing they needed right now.
“How long do we have?” Coreli asked her helmsman.
“Hour at most I give it, sir,” she replied.
Coreli and Jenkins just looked at each other, then they parted to go and try to come up with some sort of plan to avoid the loss of their vessel. It was there or start to call this backwater world home they surmised.
“Blasted Bounty Hunters....,” Jenkins muttered as he marched towards the rear of the bridge.
~*~
They sat there in the cockpit as they traveled the hyperspace tunnel. Flipping a few switches from time to time, adjusting things, and switching off non-essential systems Kase monitored the sensors and assessed the damage they had taken. Sabril however watched the tunnel of energy for a long while, just mulling over her predicament, and hoped maybe, just maybe, things would work out in her favour. Although she was uncertain of whether to b ring it up now or not. Then Kase after hitting a couple switches tot he wall panel to the left of him, turned to face her calmly. Sabril glanced over, then slowly turned to face him as well nervously.
“So...,” he said.
“So....”
~*~
SIKARRA SYSTEM
In a large, open, dark chamber with a raised, circular platform, under-lit by sinister red light laid black, horizontal tube connected by twin bars on the floor. There was a sudden hiss as steam jets expelled up from the floor around it from four moving ports that circled about the tube. Slowly the tube raised upward and the sides slid open with a pop and whine, then the front began to lower a steam jet stopped in from of it, continuing to expel into the air, creating a field of mist around the whole platform.
Suddenly the front of hte pod, it's door cut through the jet, and slammed heavy upon the striped, metal plating. There was a moment of silence as the whine ceased and a shallow breath inhaled, then slowly exhaled forth as a thing, v-shaped red light blinked on in the field of mist.
Then came a clank of a heavy foot fall, another, another, and finally a tall, armoed, and caped figure in black emerged. His head coverd by a helmet with twin, sharp smooth protrusions on the sides of hte helmet that gave a V-like appearance. With the thin, red, V-visor pierced the darkness. Finally, he had awoken.
