This is my first "Suite Life on Deck" fan fiction story, this one involving a cross over to "Star Wars", as I am a fan of both. Notice that the beginning of this story (and this chapter) is similar to the beginning of the movie "Star Wars: A New Hope". Anyways, I hope you enjoy it.
A cruise ship shaped space vessel zoomed at high speeds away from large planet. The Starship Tipton was being chased in a hot pursuit. Behind it was a large fleet of ships – an Imperial fleet, firing away furiously with its turbo lasers, torpedoes, and concussion missiles. Surrounding the Starship Tipton were several squadrons of Imperial tie-fighters, attempting to penetrate the shields. The fast moving Starship Tipton made its way past one of the moons, trying to outmaneuver the fleet of ships and escape.
The Imperial fleet, consisting of one Devastator-class Star Destroyer, four Archangel-class Star Destroyers, eight Imperial Star Destroyers, two Interdictor cruisers and various smaller ships, started to make headway as it gained on the Starship Tipton. A turbo laser shot from one of the Imperial Star Destroyers manage to penetrate the shields and hit the Starship Tipton.
"Can't you make this thing go any faster?" yelled Moseby, the captain of the Tipton.
"We are at full speed right now, but it's going to take some more time before we can get the hyper drive to work again" replied Cody, as he pushed some buttons.
"They're gaining on us!" said Zack fearfully, as he watched the radar screen and tried to repel away the Imperial fighters by having the ship's guns target them.
"Drat!" exclaimed Moseby as he pounded his fist on the captain's chair "we need to get those drives fixed so we can get out…alive!"
The Starship Tipton's crew of over seven hundred and fifty people frantically moved about as they tried to fend off the enemy ships and fighters while figuring out a way to escape almost certain doom.
They were on the run from Imperials after taking some very valuable artifacts from an expedition on the planet below them and blowing up some Imperial and local military and police forces on the planet below in the process in a bad firefight, which triggered the call for reinforcements in terms of an entire Imperial fleet. In addition, they have been wanted for other crimes committed in the past, including interfering with operations on a few planets, which has caused much headache to the region of space they were in.
Onboard the DSD Imperator, Fleet Admiral Guyrin Paddin watched with a slight smile as his Imperial fleet started to gain on the enemy vessel.
"Status report!" ordered the Fleet Admiral.
"All ships are firing, all fighters are engaged, but the shields of the Starship Tipton are pretty strong" replied a Vice-Admiral, the fleet's Tactical Officer.
"We better engage maximum firepower then, sir. Once we bring to beat the full brunt of this fleet's weapons on that enemy vessel, we might make progress" spoke the XO.
"Good point" agreed Fleet Admiral Paddin "Have all ships target the Starship Tipton at maximum firepower and have the Imperial fighters do the same. Ensure that the Interdictor Cruisers have their gravity well generators at full power, as I am not intending for them to escape".
"Aye sir" replied the Tactical Officer as he went turned back to his console to send out the orders to the rest of the fleet.
"Inform High Admiral Darus that we have the perpetrators and are in hot pursuit with our fleet, closing in fast, and to have him pass the message to Grand Admiral Trivedi right away" ordered Fleet Admiral Paddin to his communications officer.
The Imperial fleet increased its firepower, and the rain of lasers increased on the Starship Tipton, while increasing its forward speed even more. The message was also relayed to High Admiral Darus, the commander of the Brunxstedt Sector Group.
The Starship Tipton was feeling the effects of the extra firepower bearing down on them.
"Shields down to 50%!" yelled Cole as he tapped a few buttons to try to divert energy from unnecessary systems in order to repair the shields.
"Are those warp drives back online yet?" yelled Moseby grasping his captain's chair, as the ship suddenly titled leftwards before stabilizing.
"They will be on in about ten minutes!" shouted Dylan over the noise "Maya, how we are doing with trying to get away from this mess?"
"I am still having trouble shaking them away. They are pretty persistent" replied Maya as she tried to steer the Starship Tipton away from the heaviest fire "Unfortunately, we are being jammed such that we cannot escape into hyperspace".
The Starship Tipton shook heavily at the barrage of turbo lasers and the incoming torpedoes from the Imperial fleet, which racked the ship's shields.
"From what it looks like, we have been trapped in some sort of energy field, which is hindering the hyper drives from kicking on once we get them fixed" said Cody as he tapped some buttons on his panel "They are coming from two of their cruisers".
"Great, so now, we can't escape" remarked Woody, rolling his eyes and sighing. London shook her head in sadness, or maybe it was out of annoyance with Woody's comment.
"Not quite" replied Cody "what I can do is to detour some energy and focus a highly intense energy beam aimed at those two cruisers that can cause a power surge and disable those energy fields. We would have to divert energy away from holding the shields, but I think it's worth a shot"
Moseby gave it some thought and gave his okay.
Cody quickly looked for sourced which he can divert enough power to create those high intensity beams.
The Imperial Fleet closed in on the Starship Tipton. Fleet Admiral Paddin, along with his executive staff, watched from the viewport of the bridge of his Devastator-class Star Destroyer Imperator with a patient eye they neared the enemy vessel. It was getting close to capture time.
"Stand by to have the command ships and the star destroyers active their tractor beams, and assemble a boarding party from all of the ships. Set weapons to stun" ordered Fleet Admiral Paddin as he looked to his staff and turned to Major General Borwsk "That includes your men".
"Aye sir" spoke the Chief of Staff, a full Admiral, as well General Borwsk, as they went to begin their preparations.
"It's time we end this right now" spoke Fleet Admiral Paddin with a grin "stand by for my order to activate the tractor beams and have the smaller ships continue to give support fire".
Several minutes elapsed since Cody started working on his high intensity energy beam in order to disable the two Interdictor Cruisers so they can escape into hyperspace. The shields were faring pretty bad, and were near low levels. The Starship Tipton continued to shake and rock at the blows from the enemy weapons.
Maya tried her best to steer the ship at the command of Moseby, who kept shouting orders left and right. He felt pretty frustrated, at this point.
Zack kept trying to fire the various weapons emplacements of the Starship Tipton in order to fend off the Imperial fighters and counter attack the Imperial Fleet with little or no avail.
Another couple minutes passed and a series of beeps could be heard at Cody's console. The beams were ready to go.
"We are all set and ready to deploy the beams to those two cruisers" spoke Cody.
"Very good, are the warp drives fixed?" asked Moseby.
"The engineering crews somehow managed to get them back up and running, which should be enough to get us far away from here, for the time being" replied Zack, a bit relieved.
Moseby got all of the information he needed. He closed his eyes for a few short moments and took a deep breath. This was all or nothing at this point, which would mean either survival, capture or certain death.
"Alright…as soon as Cody disable the enemy's energy field, increase forward speed to maximum and stand by for my order to jump to hyperspace" spoke Moseby to Maya.
"Shields down to 30%!" yelled Zack frantically "anymore hits and we will be done for"
"It's now or never" whispered Moseby nervously.
London, who was watching the enemy ships and fighters on the radar, closed her eyes as tears filled them. She started to pray that they were successful.
"Good luck!" yelled London, with tears in her eyes, hoping they everything is successful.
The Starship Tipton shook hard at another hard shot by the enemy fire. Moseby closed his eyes again and gave the order.
"Cody, send out those laser beams. Maya, standby to increase forward speed and go to hyperspace" ordered Moseby as he turned to see open space, hoping they can make it.
"Here goes something" said Cody, a bit skeptical, as he tapped the button on his console.
Two bright white beams exited from the back of the Starship Tipton. They headed towards the two targeted Interdictor Cruisers and made a direct hit. A bright explosion resulted, disabling their gravity well generators.
"It's a direct hit! The energy fields are disabled" announced Cody.
"Go!" ordered Moseby with a single figure pointing to the viewport.
Bailey immediately tapped her console and the Starship Tipton burst into full speed, ready to escape into hyperspace.
The bright flash from the impact of the laser beams to the two Interdictor Cruisers caught the eye of Fleet Admiral Paddin and his bridge staff, who shielded their eyes, albeit momentarily.
"Status report! What in blazes was that bright flash?" yelled Fleet Admiral Paddin.
"Sir, the gravity well generators of our Interdictor Cruisers has been disabled!" replied back the Tactical Officer, who tried to communicate with those ships.
"They are getting away!" yelled Paddin's XO, as he noticed the distance between the Starship Tipton and their fleet increase.
"Increase forward speed to maximum and increase all forward firepower!" ordered Fleet Admiral Paddin, as he nervously looked back out of the viewport.
"But we are already at maximum firepower" replied his XO.
"Well, increase it some more! They can't escape!"
The Starship Tipton started gaining some serious distance from the Imperial Fleet, which kept on hounding them. The Imperial tie-fighters still poked and prodded, trying to find weak spots in whatever was left of the ship's shields.
"Distance is at 700,000 kilometers and rapidly increasing" reported Zack, smiling.
"Great, now we can get away from these mean people" remarked London, which caught the look of Zack, Moseby, Cody and Maya, before they all smiled at the truthfulness of the remark.
"Awkward" remarked Woody, as he shook his head and focused on making sure that all of the ship's systems were still operational.
"Standby all hands to jump to hyperspace on my mark" ordered Moseby, as he shook his head to refocus his attention to the viewport in front of him.
"Ready to go" replied Maya, as she took a look at Zack, who smiled back.
"All hands are ready" reported Cody.
"Engage hyperspace drive and get us out of here!" ordered Moseby.
The Starship Tipton's hyper drive engines made a high-pitched whine as they powered up. Within seconds, they were energized. The ship jolted forward, as it quickly disappeared into hyperspace with a bang.
Fleet Admiral Paddin could not believe his eyes. They were gone. So close, yet so far. His staff also could not believe what just transpired. They gazed out of the viewport in dismay.
Fleet Admiral Paddin's XO turned to his superior.
The ships of Paddin's fleet ceased firing their weapons…the commanders of the ships not sure what to make of the situation, just as baffled as Fleet Admiral Paddin and his staff.
The Imperial tie-fighters tried their best to chase the Starship Tipton, and weaken its shields as it sped away from the Imperial Fleet and disappeared into hyperspace, but of no avail, and were now in limbo, awaiting their next command.
"Sir, should we recall all fighters?" he asked very softly and cautiously.
There was no response.
"Sir?" he asked again, in the same quiet tone.
Tears started welling up in Fleet Admiral Paddin's eyes, and those around him, including Major General Borwsk, noticed. The XO then turned towards the crew pits.
"Recall all fighters and have all ships begin casualty checks and repairs" ordered the XO.
Sighing, the Fleet Admiral Paddin turned around with his head down, his water-filled eyes looking at the floor and started walking. The entire bridge, including the crew pits became quiet and watched as Fleet Admiral Paddin walked slowly off the bridge towards his quarters. To his executive staff, this was very difficult to watch. Even the two Imperial naval guards at the entrance of the bridge could sense something terribly wrong.
He's going to have some good explaining to do as to what just happened.
The Starship Tipton made its way through hyperspace, not knowing exactly where it was heading at the moment.
Moseby, Cody, Zack, London, Woody and Maya all breathed a sigh of relief as they were able to escape capture, let alone certain death. For now, they would have to decide where they want to go now that they are "officially" wanted and on the run.