Ayro was less than pleased as he watched the Grand Preceptor's lander slide into the docking bay and extend its landing gear. It had been the first time he'd been so blatant in utilizing their connection, and at one of the worst possible times, too. What in the galaxy could that man possibly want? A ramp descended from the ship, several members of the Church - each one wielding a blaster - descended first, which put the Stormtroopers there on guard duty ill at ease. Ayro raised a hand to tell them to withdraw, and they did so. . .still looking on with worry from a distance.
Down the ramp came Ijo Critus, clad in robes of pure white. Atop his head was not his usual turban, but an elaborate headdress with a jewel set in the forehead. The "third eye" that was opened to Perception that his cult was always ranting about like mad dogs.
"High Admiral." Critus bowed at the waist. "I am humbled by your hospitality."
"Why are you here?" Ayro asked, arms crossed over his chest. "Direct contact is not indicative of our agreement."
"Oh, I do understand, Admiral." Critus said. "However, the Path demanded that I be present."
"The Path?" Ayro snorted. "What are you talking about?"
"The pieces are moving into their final places," Critus told him. "This has been foretold to me. You are about to capture the Heart of Derriphan."
"I'm not interested in your crackpot-" Ayro started.
"Admiral Ayro!" The voice of Dax coming through the comms system got his attention, he moved over to a panel and accessed it.
"What is it, Captain Dax?"
"Admiral, we have intercepted the Rebel vessel!"
"Then what do you need me for?"
"I believed you wanted to be informed about the-"
"Don't bother me with trifles! Tractor the ship in! Now!"
"Yes, sir!" Ayro gave a huff of irritation, stopping and freezing as he felt a hand fall on his shoulder. Critus was there, and he hadn't heard the man move.
"As I said, Admiral. All has been foretold to me."
* * *
It really had been too easy, and now the Rebels were paying the price for it. Blue Squadron had been slaughtered. For every TIE Fighter they took out, five more seemed to flow out of the Vigilant Warden. The Star Destroyer had done well at blocking off their hyperspace corridor back to Karideph, forcing both the squad and their escort into maneuvers. Unfortunately, they were running out of space fast.
Calen gritted his teeth as he spun around the body of the transport, another pair of laser blasts taking out yet another TIE, for as good as it was doing them.
"Wings, report in."
"Blue Eight still here!" Calen chimed in. It had been a tumultuous affair. Blue Fourteen had been the first to go, left a maelstrom of fire and debris floating in Pergitor's orbit. Blue Seven, Nine, and Five had shared the same fate. Now, it was down to only five - himself, Bashin, Blue Leader, and Blue Two and Twelve.
Those that remained were panickedly calling in.
"We need to clear a path for the transport. They're trying to tow it in."
"If we hit it too close we could send the ships careening into each other."
"I've got an idea." Calen chimed in. "Blue Eight to Base One. Come in, Base One."
"Blue Eight, this is Base One. We read you." Glin's voice came over the comms.
"Throw all your power into the engines, pull in the opposite direction from the beam." Calen said. "I'm going to take out that projector."
"Copy Blue Eight. Channeling all power to engines."
"Cover me!" Calen hit the accelerator, careening around another pair of TIEs that had swooped in for another attack, narrowly avoiding their laser blasts. He had only the one photon torpedo left. He'd have to time this exactly right. Despite the chaos raining down all around him, Calen found an eerie calm had centered him. He had a mission, he had focus, and he had a stark refusal to fail. He wasn't going to fail.
The transport was being towed in, despite its efforts to propel away from the Star Destroyer. At the last second, Calen slipped between the tractor beam projector and the transport and pressed the trigger. The photon erupted from his X-Wing and slammed right into the projector, which erupted in a brilliant blaze of fire and light. By the time it did, however, Calen was pulling his ship into a massive U-turn and nearly breaking his control yoke with how hard he pushed on the accelerator.
"Great shot, Calen! That was one in a million!"
"Odds had to go my way some time." Calen said. The transport had indeed broken free of the now decimated tractor beam and was jetting back toward Pergitor at top speed. The reality of what had just happened - the fact that he could have been crushed by either ship or blown himself to Kingdom Come - settled in and he shook a bit. "Kriff, I can't believe I just did that!"
"Everybody! Withdraw!" Blue Leader's voice was heard once more. "Withdraw, we've got our opening! Go! Go! Go!" The transport moved ahead, the X-Wings following suite through the hail of TIEs that were raining down on them. A glancing blow against his shields was all it took to get Calen's focus back where it needed to be, not on his panic and not on the astromech droid that was swearing at him through the translator.
He pushed ahead, moving up alongside the convoy and blasting away another TIE as he did so. Unfortunately, another problem came to pass.
"We're running out of power. We can't make the jump to lightspeed." Glin reported through the comms.
"Base One, get to the escape craft. We'll cover you." Blue Leader intoned.
"Copy, Base One. Beginning evacuation proceed one." Glin reported before the craft disconnected from the comms system.
"Alright, people. We're stalling. Keep those fighters off the transport."
What does he think we've been doing?
"I know, I know." Calen muttered in agreement with Y7. Nevertheless, he adjusted course to move into the path of another TIE Fighter, taking it out with another blast. The rest of Blue Squadron, those that still flew, were likewise trying to thin the herd.
It wasn't having much effect, and their avenue was no more clear.
"Picking up a big energy surge in Base One."
"The Self-Destruct has been armed. We have six minutes until it goes boom. Get to minimum safe distance!" From the transport came another craft, smaller and sleeker, pulling away from the larger form.
"Flyer One to Blue Leader, we are away."
"Blue Leader to Flyer One, we read you. Prepare for the jump to hyperspace..."
***
"Energy levels are rising inside the vessel..." Until that moment, Ayro had been grinning. The Rebels had fallen right into the trap, gotten the gemstone out of the damn volcanic rocks for them and were now dropping the damn thing off...and then...
"What is it?" Ayro turned, looking down in the pit toward Dax and the rest of the crew.
"Explosives." Dax pointed out the scans of the shell of a ship that had been left behind. "Crude, but effective. Likely enough to destroy the entire ship."
"Damn it all!" Ayro growled, slamming his fist against a console.
"Fear not, Admiral..." Ijo Critus had somehow found his way on the bridge of the Vigilant Warden. The Admiral was starting to get tired of the holy man, and had turned to tell him just that. His mouth was open to release the enraged rant to end all rants, but not a single word came from his mouth. Instead, he stared and watched as Critus seemed to be staring out beyond him.
"Admiral, the energy levels are spiking! They're going to-"
Critus' hand raised toward the viewport, showing the Rebel ship left adrift.
"-I. I don't understa-" Dax exchanged a look with the Sensor Ops officer.
"What?!" Ayro spat. "What is it, Captain!?"
"Sir, the energy levels are dropping..." Dax said.
"A little gift from the Path, Admiral." Critus said, Ayro once more turning to the man. He seemed...focused, intensely upon the ship. "The Heart must be brought aboard. It has been foretold to me."
"...get a boarding party. Bring me that stone!" Ayro snapped.
"Right away, sir!" Dax said, as he tapped in some commands onto a datapad.
* * *
"You did what?!" Vos was less than pleased when the cavalcade returned to the Karideph base. The Arkanian was absolutely livid, his fist having slammed against the top of the large, round table in the briefing room.
"You have to understand, Vos, it was a calculated risk even undertaking the mission!" Glin protested.
"And you have delivered a weapon into the hands of the Empire!" Vos snapped. "You might as well of just slit your throats and not bothered coming back!"
"We didn't hand them anything." Tessa insisted. "We got that rock out of that relic of a ship...managed to haul it up into space and when we couldn't get to the damn thing to transport it, we blew it to Kingdom Come! And I didn't see you out there risking your-"
"The vessel did explode...but not before the Empire got to it." Vos said, eyes burning into her like a laser cutter through durasteel.
"...that's not possible!" Tessa shot back. "That timer wasn't even ten minutes! There's no way they could have mounted a boarding part-"
"They did!" Vos roared at her, causing Tessa to visibly shake as she fell back into her chair. "Our contact on the inside reports that Ayro is prepping the crystal as we speak."
"Prepping it? For what?" Calen asked.
"It's some kind of weapon, isn't it?" Vos snapped at him. "And now Ayro has it! We missed our shot to take a power pack out of the man's gun and instead you idiots hand delivered it to him!"
"There's someone else in his entourage." Niyasa said. "Someone who has the power to wield the Force."
"As if mysticism will help us at this juncture!" Vos gave an exasperated huff. "The reality is, the Empire now has a weapon. Our operations here are hours, maybe days from being exposed and all of us exterminated."
"We could get to it." Calen said. "Sneak aboard the Warden and find and disable it."
"More of a suicide mission than the attack on the mining site," Vos said, "I won't allow it. I've already started ordering evacuation." To the surprise of all, it was then Calen who slammed his hands down on the table.
"You coward!" He roared. The eyes of everyone on the room locked onto Calen. Some looked shocked (Tessa), some looked concerned (Niyasa), and others were barely hiding amusement and perhaps some pride (Glin).
"Excuse me?" Vos asked, finally managing to get his faculties back.
"We lost people on that mission! Good people!" Calen snapped. "People who trusted you to lead them! And you want to run away!"
"I'm sorry, last I looked, you had come in a week ago...no one wanted you here-" Vos started.
"I wanted him here, Vos." Glin spoke up, standing. "I think it's about time you come to accept that."
"...excuse me?" Vos stared at him.
"I'm fairly certain you don't have a hearing problem, Vos." Glin replied coolly. "That boy, in a week, has managed to do more than we have in almost two years of waging this campaign."
"And now he wants to go on a suicide mission to make up for his mistake!" Vos said.
"Then what do you propose we do, sir?" Calen asked the man through gritted teeth.
"We're leaving." Vos said. "I've ordered evacuation, and evacuating is what we're going to do. I've sent a communique and we're linking up with another group in the Bogden sector."
"Then we have time." Calen said, standing from the table. "I'm going."
"Absolutely not, take your seat, soldier." Calen didn't listen, which only caused Vos to raise his voice yet again. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"It's called Rebellion." Calen said, leaving and going toward the exit. Vos stammered, ineffective, as he did so. Niyasa got up.
"Well...I suppose that settles that, then." Niyasa said, pushing away from the table and getting up.
"You too?" Vos snapped at her.
"And she's not the only one." Tessa said, rising up from the table and passing by, giving Glin a kiss on the cheek. "See you later, father."
"Be careful, daughter." Glin smiled to the younger woman. "May the Force be with you." Tessa left, and Rook followed after her.
"...he's your what?!" Calen's voice echoed from the hangar.
* * *
"It's just a few members of my entourage, Admiral. There should be no problem." Ayro was less than pleased by Critus. Another shuttle had come up, bringing with it a contingent of members of the Church of Infinite Perception. "They will remain in the hangar bay. There is no reason to worry."
"In the hangar bay..." Ayro muttered. "Right."
"Sir?" Ayro's eyes flickered over to Dax, who looked less than pleased. "Sir, I don't believe this is a good ide-"
"The nexu in nerf's clothing speaks!" Critus looked almost amused. "Holding the crown with your poor, wounded fingers for another, eh?"
"What the hell is he talking about, Dax?" Ayro's eyes narrowed upon the captain of his flagship.
"I have no idea, sir." Dax replied. There was no lie in his eyes. Mad rantings from the mad holy man. No more than that. It had to be.
"You will get what you are due, beast..." Critus stared hard at the young Imperial officer.
"Enough!" Ayro snapped. "Get him off the bridge and back to the hangar bay!" Critus did not give a fight as he was escorted away. "Is the weapon prepared yet?"
"I believe so, sir." Dax said. "It has been wired into the Warden's circuitry."
"Excellent. Set course for Gehenna." Ayro said.
"Sir?" Dax asked, looking confused.
"I intend to make an example to Critus and his band of freaks. Set our course for orbit above Gehenna." Ayro ordered.
"...yes, sir." Dax nodded, once more punching information in his datapad.
***
They'd reached the shuttle craft they'd come in it, right on the pad it had landed on when they'd arrived a little over a week ago. With clearance being sent through by Glin, Calen was doing his pre-flight checks.
"Vos is going to have a fit when we get back." Tessa said.
"Hey, don't think of it like that." Niyasa intoned.
"Right. Maybe we'll all die, then it won't be our problem." Calen said, looking up from his monitor at the two, who were giving him incredulous looks. "...that was a joke." Rook barked out a bit, sounding unamused. "Well, I don't see you trying to lighten the mood, Rook..."
"We're only getting one shot at this." Tessa said. "We can lighten the mood after we win."
"So I suppose you'll need some help infiltrating a Star Destroyer, right?" The voice got everyone's attention, the four looking to see a familiar Abednedo and an R2 unit walked up the ramp.
"Bashin? What are you doing here?" Calen asked, having spun around to face his fellow pilot.
"I figured I would lend a hand, considering the last time you all infiltrated a place, you barely got out alive." Bashin laughed.
"I thought we did pretty well all things considered." Tessa muttered.
"Including destroying that one stairwell?" Bashin raised a brow at the human woman.
"That was Niyasa's fault."
"Oi!"
"Just...stop. Stop." Calen raised a hand to quell further fighting. "I'm not gonna turn away help, I'd like to see what you have in mind."
"Show 'em, Y7!" Bashin's order got the little astromech to roll up and its holoprojector to activate, showing a hologram of the Star Destroyer known as the Vigilant Warden. "The Warden has a rotating frequency sensor module that will scan every part of every ship that comes without five hundred kilometers of it. Shields won't stop it, and I know for a fact at least two of you have biosignatures on record with the Empire by now." He looked pointedly at Calen and Rook.
"And your idea is?" Tessa asked.
"Simple. I can modify the shield resonance frequencies of our vessel to match theirs." Bashin said. "I do that, get it on the same frequency they're on-"
"You said it was a rotating frequency sensor, though." Niyasa said. "If they shift that quickly, how do you know which frequencies to switch to?"
"I stole their list of frequencies used in that last info dump." Bashin said. "I move pretty quick if I have a terminal hooked into the Imperial network."
"And once we get aboard?" Calen asked.
"We'll start off in one of the hangar bays." The hologram that Y7 was projecting pulled in to tightly focus on one part of the image - the aforementioned hangar bays. Bashin pointed as he continued to elaborate. "There's a ventilation system that goes through to almost every other part of the ship besides the bridge itself, that runs on its own filtration system. If we break up into teams, we should be able to do enough damage to cause misdirection and the other team can go after the superweapon."
"Which will be...where, exactly?"
"That I don't know, but if I had to hazard a guess," He gestured again, the image moving to focus on what Calen recognized as a power station, "it would be here. The thing had some kind of energy reading from the scans that we did, and they'd probably try to amplify it as much as possible."
"So, what? What are they going to do with a giant battery?" Tessa asked. Their conversation was cut off by some commotion outside. Calen was the first to head out, passing Y7 and Bashin to see several Rebel soldiers gathering around a screen.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"It's a holonet feed from Pergitor! Gehenna!" One soldier told him. Calen looked over the man's shoulder to see the image of one of the domes of Pergitor above it, even through the horrendous blackened clouds that dropped the liquid ash upon the city one could still make out the outline of a Super Star Destroyer...the Vigilant Warden.
"This can't be real..." Calen was having some difficulty arguing with the statement. What was Ayro doing? The light of its turbolasers began to glow. They were charging an attack!
"No!" Calen cried out as the beams shot toward toward the domed ceiling...and the feed went dead. The young man, along with his compatriots, stared in silent shock for several moments. To Calen, he was remembering the day he had seen it - that the galaxy had seen it: the decimation that had been left behind in the wake of Alderaan's destruction. Billions dead, millions more without their homes, their world utterly destroyed by a casual notion by the Empire.
It was almost as if, for a moment, he could hear their screams...
He felt the clawed hand of Niyasa at his side. She had felt it, too.
"No more." Calen said, turning and heading back to the shuttle. He was up the ramp and finishing the pre-flight checks. So engrossed was he that he didn't notice the others returning.
"Calen, are you alright?" Tessa asked.
"That's why I ran away." Calen said. "When Alderaan was destroyed, I ran away from home. From everything, I came here. I know why I'm here now."
"And why would that be?" Bashin asked.
"To stop Ayro. Not some day, not later. Now. Today." Calen said, punching in the coordinates and looking through the viewport to see the light opening up above them. "This ends now!" The shuttle took off, Calen having a very, very good feeling about this.
No comments:
Post a Comment