The Front Lines 2:
Earth's Last Hope
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.
30 seconds earlier…
Blay gunned the ship's engines and sped towards the two Acclamator ship's and the Venator class Assault Ship. He gained speed fast, attempting to manoeuvre as fast, but the ship turned slowly, instead of the fast speed at which he wanted it to turn. He quickly approached the Venator ship, and saw its engines start to glow brightly.
"No!" he shouted into the comm.
"Xan! Cut the hyperdrive power! Don't jump!"
Too Late.
The Venator class ship tore a hole in normal space, opening a wormhole that was in hyperspace, and then jumped in.
Blay's ARC-170 fighter was too close for him to pull away, and it was pulled in at the same speed.
"Shit!"
Single man fighters were never meant to travel at such speeds, and that's why Blay was going to die in less than 20 seconds.
His hand lashed out and cut power to the engines.
Boom!
A laser appeared from out of nowhere and struck one Acclamator on the engine, creating a hole in the spare fuel line.
The laser had just followed them into the hyperspace hole!
The speed of the ARC-170 fighter was reduced by the slightest amount, and he had time to look backward and see multiple lasers zooming around in the wormhole, before his ship flew through the hole in the engine pipe, hitting the side with one of the wings, and crashed.
Now…
Blay groaned.
Where the hell was he?
He opened his eyes, and saw blurred images: a fire, lights and metal plating. His vision cleared and he sat up straight, although it hurt.
A lot.
He heard an alarm, and finally saw where he was.
He was in the cockpit of an ARC-170.
The alarm caused a small red strobe light to flash, and he quickly looked around.
His ship was no longer intact.
One wing had been torn off completely, and the other was buried into the wall. The cockpit was the only thing that was still in one piece.
Had the wing missed the side of the hole, and not been torn off, then the ship would have smashed head-first into the wall, killing Blay.
But, the wing did hit the side of the hole, tearing it off and sending the ship onto a spin that only lasted 0.90 seconds. But it was still long enough to get the ship's other side to smash into the wall, saving Blay's life. He struggled to move, and pain spread through his chest. He looked down at it and noticed that his armour had been severely dinted, indicating that his ribcage had collapsed. He moved slowly, and managed to get out of the ship, crawling though the broken cockpit window and limping across the floor towards a security door.
Boom!
"Argh!"
Blay was thrown across the cylindrical room and into the wall, sending pain all through his body.
He opened his eyes and saw that his ship was gone, and the fire was much bigger. Scorp's lasers had followed them through the hyperspace portal! He slowly got up, feeling multiple bones cracking from the movements, and, slowly, made his way over to the hole, where an airlock door had slid shut to keep the atmosphere pressurised.
He needed to get out, before the lasers struck the last wall that protected the fuel tank.
Then he felt the ship slow down immensely.
They were coming out of hyperspace.
"Fire in Namcalm's engine pod!"
"Give orders to send a couple of engineers down there, and get us out of hyperspace!"
"Roger!"
Xan stood at the bridge, and felt the ship slow down.
"Sir!" the radar officer called out.
"What?"
"There's a ship, sir, but it doesn't match any CIS ships that are in our database."
"On-screen!"
A hologram appeared in the middle of the room, displaying a sleek, silver ship that hovered in the middle of nowhere. Soon, it disappeared.
"Send out a communication broadcast, and tell it that we need repairs: the other ships are right behind us!"
"Yes, sir!"
"What if it isn't friendly?" asked the communications officer, typing in the message.
"Then we're screwed." answered the navigations officer.
During the short time in which Xan had been on the Venator, the bridge crew had quickly accepted the fact that he was different, although he hadn't said anything, and had begun to act like he did.
"Sir: it's gone!"
Xan ran over to the radar console and looked at the screen.
Nothing.
"Where did it go?"
"Don't know, sir."
Boom!
Blay sat up against the wall, willing the pain to go away.
Boom!
The 3 and last of Scorp's laser's hit the wall close to him, but he was ready for it.
He was already on his feet by the time the laser impacted, and felt himself being pulled out. He readied his magnetic clamps, and was soon outside the ship! He threw the two clamps, attached to ropes, and they soundlessly hit the hull of the ship. He managed to hit a button on his wrist, and he was pulled to the clamps. He grabbed onto them, began to slowly work his way across the hull of the ship, when he saw a long, big silver ship appear out of nowhere, and open fire on his ship.
"Oh, shit!"
"What the hell was that!" Xan shouted.
"It's the other ship! It's back! It fired a plasma laser, and it impacted on the Namcalm's damaged engine!"
Xan looked out the main view port and saw the silver ship was much closer than it had previously been.
"Charge MPL's!" he shouted to the fire control officer.
"Charging all 3 MPL's!" the fire control officer announced.
The navigations officer sent a signal to both Acclamator ships to do so as well.
"MPL's are hot!"
"Charge Beta missiles A through F!" Xan shouted the order.
"Beta missiles charged!"
"Fire!"
3 long, blue lasers streaked towards the silver ship, and it lurched to the side on the impact.
"Acclamator's are opening up!"
4 more lasers shot towards the ship.
"Sir! Enemy ship is firing!"
2 large purple streaks glided toward the Venator ship, and it impacted on the hull.
"Shield percentage!"
"83, sir!"
"Arm an EMP Beta missile, and give me a firing solution!"
Another plasma streak hit them, and the ship rocked in response.
"EMP missile is ready!"
"Fire!"
The EMP Beta missile shot over to the silver cruiser, and impacted, spreading a shockwave filled with electricity.
"EMP is missing us!" the fire control officer said.
"Assemble boarding parties!" Xan shouted.
Blay made his way across the hull in order to keep away from the fire that blossomed from the engine that no longer existed. His ribcage hurt like hell, and he was eager to stop fooling around in zero-gee gravity, and get inside the ship. He looked at the Venator that Xan was on, and saw 3 LAAT's depart from the hangar.
The hangar…
Bravo 1 stood in the cockpit of the LAAT, looking over the pilot's shoulder.
"ETA?" he asked.
"30 seconds."
"Captain, this is Bravo 1, activating holorecord… now."
A beep emitted from Bravo 1's helmet speakers, indicating that it was recording, and now the bridge crew were seeing everything that he was seeing.
"Roger, Bravo 1," Xan's voice came over the comm.
He walked into the troop hold, and looked at the 5 clone's that were there, and transmitted talked to them via comm channel, so the two clones in either turret could hear.
"Alright, men! We go in, we neutralise any threat, and grab anything supplies that we can get our hands on!"
"Yes, sir!"
He knew that Alpha and Charlie teams were doing the exact same thing in their separate LAAT's.
"Captain to Bravo 1: Clear LZ for your own LAAT's, then prepare for landing by Delta and Echo teams,"
"Roger that."
"Hold on!" the pilot yelled.
They came in fast, swooping through the large hangar door, only able to get through because the EMP shut down their shields, and the ship's electronics.
"Take them out!" one of the clone's in a turret yelled.
"Clear an LZ!"
All the turrets opened fire from all 3 ships at once, clearing out the creatures in the hangar that hadn't died from the lack of oxygen.
"Go! Go! Go!"
The LAAT's landed, and 18 clones poured out, accompanied by the fire from the LAAT's main cannons, and the side turrets.
Bravo 1 jumped out, his boots hit the metal plates, and he fired his blaster rifle. A small one near him fell as its face melted from the lasers, and blue blood spread on the deck. More of the aliens fell, and the hangar was quickly under Republic control.
"Bravo 1 to Hellmor: hangar is under Republic control."
"Roger that, Bravo 1; proceed to next sector, and strip any hostile corpses of ordnance."
"Roger."
Bravo 1 waved his team forward, and they came to a door. The technician walked up to the door and began to slice into the computer system, working non-stop. After a few minutes, he stepped away, and the door hissed open, revealing a man-sized alien, wearing blue armour, with four mandibles instead of a mouth. It levelled an object at the technician and opened fire.
"Argh!"
The technician fell to the floor, clutching his chest where a blue laser, similar to that of their blaster rifles, had struck, and his armour slowly boiled away.
"Fire!" yelled Bravo 1, and the other 14 clones from all the fire teams did the same. The alien roared and fell to the floor, accompanied by a pool of purple blood.
"Secure the weapon," said Alpha leader.
"And get that tech officer some bacta!"
The tech was taken back to the Bravo LAAT as Alpha leader assumed command, and issued orders.
"Bravo, continue through this corridor. Alpha, meet me over there by that purple beam. Charlie wait here until Delta and Echo arrive, then continue through the door on the second level, by coming with us over to the beam, which I suspect is a lift."
"Yes, sir!"
Bravo 1 led his 3 other clones through the corridor and down a hall. They came into contact with a creature slightly smaller than the one they had encountered previously. It twitched his head and looked up, then screeched at them. Its movements were fast and twitchy, and it almost looked like a bird, well, the head did.
The team opened fire without hesitation, and it fell, screaming. Two companions came around the corner, these ones small, saw the dead 'bird', stopped, and then they yelped and shouted in fright, running back the way they had come. Bravo 1 shot one of them, and the lasers hit the small thing in the back, sending it toppling over. The second was put down by the rest of the group.
"Move!"
They came to a room that was full of the small ones.
"Fire!"
The team opened fire on all of the small ones, who jumped in fright and surprise. A number of them had gone down when a huge 'thing' entered the room.
"New contact-"
"Take it down!"
The new beast's right arm glowed green, and suddenly a green rocket flew towards one of the clone's, who was busy finishing off some of the smaller aliens. The rocket hit the clone and exploded, sending objects flying, and leaving a crater where the clone was.
"Switch targets! Take down the big one!"
The remainder of Bravo team opened fire on the creature, and it lumbered toward them, blocking the lasers with a metal shield that was attached to its left arm.
"Grenade!"
A Thermal Detonator was tossed, and the explosion clouded the creature. When the smoke cleared, the creature was nowhere to be found, and the team cheered. They policed some of the weapons from the smaller creatures, then set to work opening up some of the crates that were in the room.
"Whoa… Sir: take a look at this."
Bravo 1 ran over to a clone holding a small purple crystal.
"Are you getting this, captain?"
"What is it?"
"Don't know, sir, but we should take it back."
"Affirmative."
Bravo 1 placed the crystal in his pouch, and then walked back to his crate to continue salvaging.
Blay made his way closer to the airlock, when he saw three ships emerge from hyperspace.
One Vennator and two Acclamator's.
Scorp's ships.
"Shit."
Things just got a helluva lot more complicated.
Xan looked out the view port, and saw the three ships emerge from hyperspace. He turned to the COM officer.
"Get them out of there!"
Bravo 1 ran back into the hangar, and saw the other LAAT's ready to lift off. He jumped on board his LAAT, when the Alpha leader did the same.
"Have you got the crystal?" he asked.
"Yes, sir!" Bravo 1 said, handing the crystal to Alpha leader. The other clone jumped of the LAAT and ran to his own, just as Bravo 1's LAAT began to lift off. The LAAT cleared the hangar, followed by the other LAAT's, and then Alpha team's LAAT took the lead.
"Assume formation! Prepare for heavy fire!"
Although they are prototypes on the planets, ARC-170 fighters are on every Vennator class ship and Acclamator class ship. That's why a swarm of ARC's came flying at the LAAT's, firing as they did. Lasers impacted on the shields of all the LAAT's, and soon they broke formation, headed to the Hellmor via any route possible.
"Hold on!" the pilot shouted over the team COM frequency, and the LAAT went into a spin, sending two torpedos flying past it. The LAAT jerked to the side, and they were nearing the Hellmor.
"Four locked torpedos!" they heard the Alpha pilot shout, followed by Alpha leader's voice:
"Dump any finds out into space for pickup later: we need to get anything we can back to the Hellmor"
The Alpha LAAT's door's opened, and objects floated out and towards the Hellmor's hangar, including a small, purple crystal.
Blay saw the 6 LAAT's exchange fire with Scrop's ARC's, and he knew that he needed to get tothe airlock that was just out of his reach.
"Yes!"
He got to the airlock and hit the opening buttons, but nothing happened.
He tried again.
Nothing.
"Shit!"
The airlock was stuck, and there was no way that he would be able to make it over to the other one: Xan would jump into hyperspace the first chance he got, which was soon. That left him no other choice:
He would have to jump over to the Hellmor's hangar.
A/N: OMG. Big chapter. I know I should've tried to squish it down, and the rest will be shorter.