The Big Rescue

by SenatorBonteri

Rebel Warlord Lux Bonteri has been captured by pirates. Who will be the first of his allies to save him? Read and find out.

It was somewhere in the Outer-Rim, and no vessels of any sort were in sight, save, of course, for Lux Bonteri's lone droid cruiser. But suddenly, a large ship of Albennellian/Mon calamari design jumped out of hyperspace and into the scene. This ship was the Queen Abigail's Revenge. Before much could have been done, a tractor beam had connected the two ships, and EMP blasts had disabled the rebel cannons for a quiet, steady boarding. Lux was just coming back from dropping off his daughter, Mariah Bonteri, on Yavin IV for a reunion with her old master, Notleh Samoht, who had just reappeared to take her back as his apprentice... when this happened to him. He was on one of his droid cruisers. He yelled to the battle droids to prepare for combat. He didn't know who he was up against. But he never went down without a fight. Captain Dantès and his Kaleesh first mate were the only living things to boldly board Bonteri's vessel. However, that isn't to say that they were not accompanied by droids of their own. They were followed by a squad of assassin droids and magna-guards. Immediately upon boarding, Dantès fired upon every droid in sight, switching between the six pistols he kept in his jacket. His pirate squad followed his lead. Lux's droids fought back, but sadly seemed to be no match for the pirates. But one droid aimed at the captain's head, in an attempt to kill him off and confuse his followers. Without so much as glancing at the droid that had him in its sights, Dantès coolly switched pistols again to blast it. He began advancing to the bridge with his first mate before the firefight had truly ceased. Apparently, he wanted an audience with the captain of the ship, not caring too much about the droids on either side of the battle. Upon getting to the bridge, the captain saw who was on it and giving the commands. The young man ceased to give them and faced his intruder with an aggravated look on his face. "Pirate scum." Lux said, noticing this man was obviously a buccaneer.

For a moment, the captain only stared Lux down with his one good eye, having put all six of his blasters back into his coat, which had clearly been taken from an admiral of Albennel IV. His hair had gone grey and his face was wrinkled, but that was clearly a result of turmoil rather than time, for he was hardly forty. Without warning, the captain burst into jolly laughter. "Arr! If it isn't Bonteri himself!" Lux turned and realized he had neither of his usual force sensitive protectors with him. But he pulled out his holo-communicator and tried to contact Terra Xar or Durbero, with one hand. With the other, he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the pirate. "How fortunate we are to find you alone!" Dantès's Kaleesh first mate aimed his blaster rifle at Lux in turn while the pirate captain again armed himself and fired one precise shot at the rebel's hole-communicator. The message would have gotten through, but only vaguely.

Lux had barely had enough time to send a distress signal to his protectors saying he had been boarded by someone, before his communicator was shot. He let out a small frustrated growl and then noticed he also had a gun pointed at him. No. Two guns. Then when he heard footsteps from assassin droids outside in the corridors, he put his hands in the air and dropped his pistol. There was nothing he could do, because the droids manning the controls were all unarmed. He let out a sigh. "What can I do? You HAVE me."

"I believed myself to be boarding the vessel of Captain Bonteri...It seems that I have instead confronted Captain Obvious!" The pirate laughed again, though more bitterly this time. "I know a few people who would pay well for your head. But I am a civilized Albennellian! So I will keep the rest attached." The assassin droids, when they arrived, promptly seized Lux's weapons.

"Warlord Bonteri." He muttered as he was disarmed. He hoped someone would come to his rescue before he was sold off to an enemy... likely the empire.

"Come, don't be so bitter. I remember being under the queen's service. You got all the credit for *our* work... This is what comes of fame, man! You get sold to the highest bidder." By now, the rest of the live pirates had arrived to secure the loot, but Dantès knew that Bonteri was the most profitable capture.

There was hardly any loot, on this particular ship, other than scrap metal from the defeated battle droids. But Lux said to himself. "Son of a _. That's gratitude for you."

"Oh, don't get me wrong! I am grateful. If you didn't take the credit, then I would be in your position now." At the end of a blaster barrel, the pirates began leading Lux back to their flagship, Queen Abigail's Revenge. There were holes in this guy's logic Lux figured he could fit a whole X-wing through. But he kept quiet as he walked along. Inside the Queen Abigail's Revenge was surprisingly orderly, at least for a pirate ship, save for a few posters of the current king of Albennel IV with blaster marks on them. The captain himself escorted Lux to the cells. "Not much of a talker, are you? Perhaps you do know what's for you." Lux took a look around as he was led to his cell.

Meanwhile on Rhen Var, Terra Xar was sitting in bed in her casual attire meditating when her holo-communicator went off. She slightly shook her head as she came out of her meditation state, and recognized the code of Lux's distress signal. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?" She said, shaking her head with a smirk. She tracked the coordinates of the signal and prepared to leave. "Alright. I'm coming."

Lux sat alone in the cell aboard the Queen Abigail's Revenge. Unknown to his pirate captor, he had placed a tracking beacon inside so he could have a rescuer find him. Suddenly a fleet of 5 rebel ships came out of hyperspace at roughly those coordinates. The cruisers quickly disabled the hyperdrive of the Queen Abigail's Revenge. Rogue Jedi Durbero was prepared to board the ship and disable the tractor beam while Terra Xar, Will-Kar'gon Tresher Vizla, and Bounty Hunter Lucius Varn rescued Lux. Terra was aboard and preparing. She wasn't wearing her usual attire, though. It was much more lax. Rescue missions never really intimidated her. She wore her hair in a braid, black leggings, a low cut long sleeved grey shirt, and her cloak and boots. She hooked her sabers onto her belt and donned her hood. Kar'gon was in his Mandalorian costume, which he didn't usually use. He equipped a Jetpack, his dark and blue saber, a blaster, a pulse flamethrower alongside some missiles, he walked next to Terra and looked at her. "Ready to save Lux?" He said as he put on his helmet.

"Aye." She said as she brushed her bangs back under her hood, her red eyes glistening in its shadow. In his own starship, Lucius mentally prepared himself for the mission to save his friend Lux from his captors. He walked to his armory located in the cargo hold of his ship and grabbed his carbine blaster, frag grenades, and two blaster pistols before heading to the ship's exit.

The pirate captain coolly watched the events from the bridge. Although he may not have expected such quick retaliation, he betrayed neither surprise nor panic; however, he was visibly agitated by the neutralization of his ship's functions. "Nobody boards *my* ship. Summon the Kraken!" A large vessel, much larger than the Queen Abigail's Revenge, appeared out of hyperspace behind the rebel fleet. The Kraken always traveled barely out of view from the rest of its own fleet. Instantly, fighters poured out of the Kraken, and their primary objective was to prevent the boarding of the Queen Abigail's Revenge. Rebel fighters were dispatched as well. X wings and Y wings came out to counter the Kraken's onslaught of fighters. "Get to work on the hyperdrive!" The Captain said to the engineers. He then placed Lux's weapons in a vault and dispatched his best force, including his first mate, to the cells. Although the pirate fleet was large considering what it was, it was not designed to battle with entire opposing fleets. They would not be able to do so for long.

Durbero had already managed to board the shuttle with the rest of the rescue team onto the Revenge. But then the Rebel ships noticed the Kraken come out of hyperspace. The Jedi ordered the fleet to focus on it, instead. The boarding was done. He opened the hatch of the shuttle and exited the ship along with the rest of the team. "You guys follow Lux's tracking signal. I'll find his weapons and disable this ship's tractor beam."

Terra rolled her eyes at Durberos's impulsiveness. "Hold on." She said to the rest of the team, her voice was firm. "Let's think about this for a second. They're going to expect us all to rush to Lux's rescue. They'll all be waiting. We can't give them what they want, now can we? A larger distraction needs to be made away from Lux's cell. Hopefully they'll be forced to thin out their defense there. I took the liberty of down loading blueprints of the ship to my holocomm. I'm going to sneak around to find Lux." Durbero stopped to think about that and then nodded his head in agreement with Terra. Then he motioned for Kar'gon to follow him instead. Reluctantly, Kar'gon did that. "Don't worry, I'll let you guys know when I've found him. I have a feeling you'll be pretty preoccupied, though."

With that, they went off, and Terra opened the nearest vent and jumped down into the system. She closed the vent over her and pulled up the map of the ventilation system on her holocomm. She had previously marked the detention part of the ship, and began stealthily crawling her way there. Lucius grinned at Terra. "Now, don't hog all the fun for yourself."

Meanwhile, Durbero made his way towards the tractor beam, first. He fought off any opposition that stood in his way, with Kar'gon's help. When they GOT to the tractor beam, Kar'gon said, "Do whatever you to do with that. I'll defend you."

Durbero got the tractor beam out of commission in a matter of less than a minute. "Now, for the tricky part. Getting Lux's weapons back."

"I like my tractor beams working." The Captain's voice came from one of the doorways of the room. He had been undetectable due to a cloaking device and a classic ysalamiri on his shoulder. Without hesitation, he began blasting away at Durbero and Kar'gon, rapidly switching through the six blaster pistols he carried on his person.

Durbero could sense the guy had the same sort of force repelling ability Lux did, as he deflected the shots. "Blast! He came prepared." While everyone else was busy with the pirates, Lucius stealthily made his way through the ship in an attempt to find Lux.

Kar'gon quickly deflected the blaster shots. "Can you handle this guy? I mean, you have a lightsaber. I'll go help Miss Dark Sider." He said.

Durbero tried to stop him from leaving by saying that if he scattered, he'd have a better chance of picking them off one by one. They should stick together. But did the impetuous young fool listen? NooooooOOOOO. He attempted to force push the captain out of the way and leave the room. Meanwhile, Durbero mumbled to himself after he knew Kar'gon's force push wouldn't work, and he was alone to face the captain himself, now. "Terra thinks I'M the impulsive one? Idiot... Idiot!"

The Force pushed, indeed, did not work on Dantes due to his ysalamiri, but he let Kar'gon go regardless. "Let's see how fast you can dance, Jedi." The captain pulled out two more new blasters from his boots. They were automatic. He pointed the two rapid-fire blasters at Durbero's knees and held the triggers down.

Durbero darted out of the way and leaped into the air really fast before landing in front of Dantes and cutting his blaster pistols with his saber upon his landing. Then he pointed his blade at the Captain's throat. "Free your captive and let us go along our way."

"Why would I do that when I could capture all of you and double the ransom?" The pirate replied frankly. He knew that a Jedi wouldn't take a life unnecessarily. Durbero swiftly cut the ysalamiri on his shoulder in half and then knocked him out with a force push that slammed him head first into the wall. Then he picked up the captain's sleeping form and carried it with him... along with Lux's weapons, which were soon retrieved from the vault... to Terra's position. He planned to use Dantes as a living shield.

Meanwhile, Terra had been crawling her way through the vent system, careful to keep as silent as possible, especially when traveling over pirates, and soon reached the detention level. At this point, she closed her eyes and meditated briefly, focusing on Lux's essence so she could track down which cell he was in. When she found him, she made her way first to the vent in the hall outside his cell. She looked down to see how many men there were guarding it. It appeared to be around five or six. She then looked down towards the end of the vent she was in, and used the Force to make the vent at the far end of the hall rattle, hoping to distract at least two of the men to make them go check it out. Two of the pirates guarding Lux's cell were about to check the vent out, but the first mate was more intelligent than the average pirate - or perhaps just trigger-friendly. He held his hand out to stop the two guards then blasted the rattling vent instead. They were more alert now than ever. Terra lightly flinched as the vent was blasted. She sighed in frustration. She then decided to reveal herself. She spoke up, her voice echoing in the vent appearing louder. "Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way, aren't we?" With that, she removed her vent and dropped down in front of the pirates. She threw her hood off and smirked. "Hello, there." The Kaleesh first mate wasted no time after seeing Terra. He quickly armed himself with a cortosis blade while the other five pirates, some of the best marksmen on the ship, fired darts at her. The darts would paralyze her ability to use the Force temporarily. Terra's reflexes were far more advanced due to her recent trainings and meditation. Before the darts hit her, she held up both of her hands and caught them mid-air with the Force, and she laughed a bit. "I know you're pirates, but let us try and be civilized about this, shall we?" After she spoke, she crushed the darts with the Force hold he already had on them. She then unclasped her cloak and let it fall to the floor. When she spoke, she had a snarky tone. "I only want to chat before things get interesting. May I ask why exactly you're holding my friend captive?" She then rested her hands on her hilts.

The first mate spoke in his rusty, deep voice, "Even pirates need a living..." Then a new thought came into his mind. "If your party persists, on the other hand, Bonteri will die. As Captain Dantes always says, 'if you don't kill someone every once in a while, people forget who you are'."

That was when Durbero marched into Terra's corner of the ship from behind the first mate, with his saber ignited and ready to defend. He also still had Dantes sleeping over his shoulder. "Not so fast, Sleemo."

Terra laughed. "You'd execute your high bounty prisoner? I'm no expert in speechcraft, but I'd say you're bluffing." She cocked and eyebrow at the first mate. "And besides, isn't that a decision for your superior to make?" She taunted.

The first mate only stared blankly for a moment. He may be smart for a pirate, but that is not saying much. He growled in rage before resorting again to the war-like Kaleesh ways. "Blast her!" In his anger, he didn't notice the Jedi come up behind him. The other pirates, therefore, recognized that they were leaderless. Instead of taking their chances with two Force users, they fled, abandoning their post.

Durbero smirked, cut Lux's cell door open, gave the rebel warlord back his weapons, and then told Terra, "Nice work, on your part."

Lux emerged from his cell with his weapons back in hand. "Thank you both! Boy, am I glad to see you guys." He shot Terra a smile then pointed his blaster at the first mate. Stereo-typically to the culture of his species, the first mate was not going to give up. He backed up into a wall, watching for an opportune time to strike at one of his three enemies. He cared little about the blaster Lux pointed at him. Lux pulled the trigger and stunned him. "Now what? Lock them in their own cell? Take them back with us? What do you say, Terra?"

Terra nodded at Durbero thanking him for the compliment, then she returned Lux's smile with a small one of her own. She looked down at the first mate on the floor. "We use him as leverage." She bent down and picked him up, he was surprisingly light, and she slung him over her shoulder. "Let's go find this Captain of his and see if we can't make a trade. What do you think?"

"I've already got the captain." Durbero said. Then he sensed the other two that came along only to wander off were in trouble… just like he thought they'd be. "Oh no..."

"Lucius! You're here! Great, we need to find Lux and Terra, right now!" Kar'gon said upon bumping into the mercenary who was a mutual friend of Lux's.

"Hey, Will! Glad to see you! Let's go find them now!" Lucius replied.

Just as Lucius was finished speaking, an energy shield appeared over the two. It was a trap. Droids and pirates stormed into the corridor to surround Lucius and Kar'gon. Mortimer Gen entered the corridor where Lucius and Kar'gon had been trapped. With a grin on his face, he dramatically conducted a slow clap as he gradually approached. "Well done. You did... exactly what I thought you would. As you can see, everything that you could possibly have done had already crossed my mind."

Kar'gon realized he and Lucius were trapped and it was difficult to leave. He turned to Mortimer as Lucius said, "There has to be a way out of this!"

Kar'gon activated his flamethrower and shot it at his shield. It did nothing. Then he activated his dark saber. "OPEN, DANG IT!" He started hitting the shield with his saber and flamethrower at the same time. But it still did nothing. Then Kar'gon had an idea. His eyes glowed red as he stood in the middle of the shield. "Lucius, don't move or this might hurt you, man..." With all his strength, he shot red lightning from his hands that slowly started to cover the shield, and slowly crack it as he screamed and shot more powerful red lightning. THIS WAS A DUMB IDEA.

Breaking down the shield would be costly to Kar'gon's energy. Mortimer expected it. "Right then. Fire at will." Before the shield had been taken down fully, the droids surrounding it began to fire at Lucius and Kar'gon. Kar'gon screamed even louder and then... The shield broke and a huge shockwave of red lightning was released, deactivating the droids. Kar'gon fell on his knees, because he got shot in several places, while protecting Lucius. His ignorance had led to his downfall. The droids had done their work, therefore Mortimer was not downcast by their disablement (He probably expected it). He activated his orange light saber then strode in the direction of Lucius, meanwhile using the Force to push Kar'gon in order to keep him down.

Kar'gon got up and activated his dark saber. He was at his last drop… and barely alive. He requested huge help. "This is our fight, not his. The force is with me…" he said. FOOLISH TO THE LAST.

Mortimer stopped in his tracks. This was unexpected, even for him. He observed Kar'gon's weakness, and so became reassured. "You're hardly in a position to fight. You overestimate the Force."

Lucius glared at Mortimer and drew his blaster pistols. "If you think I'm going down without a fight, then you're dead wrong!" He took aim with his weapon and fired at Mortimer.

Mortimer turned towards Lucius again just barely in time to deflect the blaster fire. "The mercenary still has fight in him as well! I must say, you surprise me." While Mortimer turned towards Lucius, Kar'gon attempted to strike him on his back with his Dark Saber. Slowly, his eyes turned red. SOMETHING WAS UP WITH HIM. In the midst of the ongoing space battle, a small shuttle had been allowed to board the Queen Abigail's Revenge. From it came four FIRA (First Intelligent Regal of Albennel) agents, all wielding lightsabers. By the time Kar'gon had broken the shield, they were already in the area, waiting for Mortimer's command. The code word was "surprise," something Mortimer would never have said otherwise. The four rushed into the corridor, just in time for one of them to block Kar'gon's strike. The other two sought to disarm him by swinging their lightsabers at his wrists.

Lux, meanwhile, had reached the ship his rescuers came in, and was with his two main companions. He suddenly sent an open frequency transmission, as the ship flew off the Queen Abagail's revenge. "Attention, all who are on that pirate vessel. I have your captain and your first mate with me, as hostages. If you want them back, you'll have to trade Lucius Varn and Will-Kar'gon Tresher Vizla for them. That is all."

"You don't need to trade me! Only him. I can get out of this by my… my… myself… ARGH!" The hotheaded Kar'gon fell on the floor hearing voices after voices. He slowly started to shake, his wounds glowed green as his skin turned gray with black veins, as if he got a disease… and suddenly died. He fell onto the ground and laid there.

Lucius slowly rose to his feet and shook his head slightly. "You'll have to better than that, pal. It'll take more than that to knock me out!" He charged Mortimer and landed a powerful left hook. Mortimer was thrown onto his back from the blow. He wasn't as much of a fighter as a mastermind. However, he was swift onto his feet. Equally as swift, he swung his lightsaber at Lucius's blaster. "Hey! That was my favorite blaster!" Lucius kicked Mortimer hard in the stomach, and as Mortimer doubled over, Lucius grabbed his head and hit it with his knee. The four FIRA agents, after inspecting Kar'gon, rushed to the aid of their leader. Each one seized one of Lucius's limbs.

Lux saw what was going on and shook his head slowly. He wanted to save his friends, but it looked like it was out of his hands, now. He decided to hold a vote between him, Durbero, and Terra. "Should we get out of here or stick around? I doubt this will end well, now."

Durbero observed, "One of the people who separated themselves from me is already dead, from the look of things. The other looks like he's about to die, as well... since he's outnumbered. But I'm not going to make this choice. What do you say, Terra?"

She sighed. "If we stick around, who's to say they won't catch up to us? I think we should take off." Lux nodded slowly, then took off into hyperspace… taking Captain Dantès and his first mate with him, as hostages.

After the getway, Lux made sure to freeze the hostage pirates in carbonite, so they couldn't escape. Then, he turned to Terra. "I've thanked you already. But I see no harm in doing it again." He smiled and offered her a handshake "Thanks for coming for me."

Terra laughed a bit. "There's no need to be so formal. You're welcome." She gave a small smile.

He smiled a little wider, then looked down. "I just wish there was something more I could have done for the other two. But why'd they have to be so foolhardy?" He clenched his fist a little.

Terra shook her head and leaned against the wall crossing her arms. "There isn't much you can do to correct impulsiveness, especially when the people are stubborn and refuse to see things in another way but their own. It's not your fault."

Half a smile returned to his face. "You're probably right, as usual."

She gave a slight nod with a smirk. "I do my best."

He gave her a light hug with one arm. "You succeed, my friend. You succeed."

She returned the affection by leaning her head on his shoulder but keeping her arms crossed. "I'm glad."

Little did anyone know that Kar'gon's body, back on the pirate ship, was now possessed by an evil spirit… which was now waiting for the perfect moment to awaken inside of the overpowered impulsive nit-wit.

THE END.