Chapter 1: The Endar Spire, Orbit Around Taris
"Hey, AT, can you get me the hydrospanner? AT?"
A dark head pulled out from underneath a control console in the hangar bay of the Republic ship the Endar Spire and looked around curiously. The wiry woman then sighed and pushed her protective goggles up onto her forehead, causing her bangs to spike wildly and get entangled. Rubbing her grimy left hand over her blue eyes - which left a black smudge across the bridge of her nose - she shook her head in dismay.
"Damn droid," grumbled Eilis O'Bren as she sifted through her pile of tools for the elusive hydrospanner. The technician-slash-smuggler that'd been drafted by the Republic near the end of her last run shook her head as she added, "Don't know why I put up with his antics. Wonder where he went this time…"
Finding the hydrospanner, she gave her goggles a tug back down over her eyes and ducked back into the innards of the console. She made a few adjustments and untangled one wily wire from its neighbors before pulling out again. Settling her weight back onto her heels, she rose up onto her knees and started up the console's power to see if she was finished with it.
"C'mon, baby, work for Elly," she muttered as she turned the power up to its normal level. The console hummed briefly to life then sputtered and died, leaving only a small orange light blinking at her. She glowered at the offending piece of machinery for a moment then her left fist lashed out and struck the underside of the console near the panel she had opened. The orange light flickered once then winked off, swiftly followed by the low hum of the console powering up.
Eilis grinned and gave the console a pat before she bent and replaced the panel she'd removed. Rising to her feet, she ran through a quick systems check to make sure everything was working like it was supposed to. When everything came back green and ready to go she chuckled and said to herself, "Elly O'Bren, 456; broken machines, 0."
A nervous beep sounded from her right suddenly and she turned to find AT there, the lens he used as an eye flickering red. Eilis turned to berate the little circular, repulsorlift-powered droid she'd rescued from a junk heap a year ago and froze as she saw something flash by the open hangar bay doors. A quick glance around showed all of the Spire's fighters were sitting in the bay and she felt a quiver of fear rise up in her belly.
Another fight swooped by and then the much larger bulk of a ship equal in size to the Spire came into view. AT let out a piercing shriek and Eilis dropped the hydrospanner she still held in her hand in shock.
"Sith!"
Spinning, she wrenched open the protective case on the wall above the console she'd been working on and slammed her hand down onto the button underneath. Immediately the red emergency lights came up in the hangar and the shrill sound of the alarm system began to ring through the entire ship. Why the alarm hadn't been going off for the past few minutes when it was rather self-evident that the Sith weren't hiding themselves was a mystery to her but now it was off and anybody that didn't know something was up did now.
Eilis grabbed AT out of the air then and clutched him in her arms as she sprinted out of the hangar bay toward the repulsorlift, leaving all of her tools scattered on the floor. If she got killed by the Sith or captured, she wouldn't need them anyway.
Jabbing the button for the level her room was on, Eilis released a furiously beeping AT right before he zapped her arm with his stunner. The little droid spun in a circle then beeped even more furiously at her, his photoreceptor flashing red in such quick succession that it was nearly solid in color.
"Yeah, I know the Sith are likely boarding the ship," she snapped angrily at him. He beeped again and she snarled, "Leave! Hey, I may be a smuggler but I'm still a member of the Republic! They need help and I'll be damned if I ain't gonna give it. And you're gonna help too."
AT beeped in dismay and she smacked the little droid, causing him to bump into the wall of the car.
"Don't you tell me it's not our problem! We're on the ship that's being attacked for Force's sake! I think that makes it our problem!"
"Beep bop," said AT and bobbed in the air, his photoreceptor flicking to a steely blue. Eilis glared at him then took off in a sprint as soon as the car came to a halt, the little droid right behind her. Sparks burst from a hole made by blaster fire in the wall to her right as she ran past, causing her to throw up her right arm to shield her face. When she rounded the corner just beyond the damaged wall, she nearly ploughed straight into her bunkmate, Trask Ulgo.
"I've been looking for you!" exclaimed the Republic soldier, lowering the blaster pistol he'd pointed at her. "I thought you were asleep!"
"I was 'till I got dragged down to the hangar bay to fix the force field controls," explained Eilis. She then frowned at him and asked, "You didn't happen to grab my blade, did'ja? What with, y'know, the Sith wandering the ship and me being weaponless?"
Trask looked confused for a minute then said, "Oh. Yeah." He held out a sheathed vibrosword in his left hand and she quickly buckled it onto her pouch-infested belt, checking the vibration cell in the hilt to make sure it was still working.
"We've got to get moving," said Trask as she finished her check. "The Sith have made it to the bridge."
Eilis wrinkled her nose then waved a hand at him in a 'Lead on' motion. The soldier acknowledged her by taking point and she followed him with one hand ready to unsheathe her vibrosword. AT bobbed along behind them, a small flamethrower she had equipped him with extended on an arm from one of the two bottom compartments on his body.
Trask opened a closed door by palming the wall console beside it then quickly ducked back behind with a hiss.
"Sith!"
Frowning, Eilis peered around him into the next corridor. Two Sith soldiers stood with their backs to them, their blaster rifle's held loosely at their sides instead of at the ready. Shaking her head at their stupidity, she whispered, "Be right back," to Trask and reached to her belt. The cool, underwater feeling of her stealth field generator washed over her as she turned it on and she stepped cautiously into the corridor.
Neither Sith made any sign that they heard her approach and she smiled grimly before slowly drawing her vibrosword. The blade hummed softly to life as she depressed the switch on the hilt and the Sith nearest her turned slightly, saying to his partner, "Did you - "
He never finished her question as Eilis drove her blade up with a harsh thrust, the point sliding up through the gap between the armor that guarded his neck and back to impale his throat. The other Sith let out a surprised cry and turned with his rifle at the ready but Trask took him down with two quick shots to the head.
As the corpses collapsed to the floor, Eilis switched off her stealth generator and pulled her vibrosword out of the Sith's neck. It scraped harshly against his armor and she frowned before jerking it completely free, shaking his blood from the blade in the same motion. Quickly she raided both soldiers' packs and found five frag grenades between them as well as two medpac's. Trask took one of the medpac's when she offered it but declined on the grenades.
"I throw worse than a girl," he commented with a wry grin.
Eilis' blue eyes narrowed at him and she snapped, "Watch it, Trask, or I'll shove a grenade up your ass." Her harsh tone was negated by the smile that twisted her lips and the Republic soldier knew that she was joking with him in her usual manner.
He grinned briefly at her then both of them turned serious again as they continued down the corridors of the Spire. Three more Sith fell to them before either got injured and Eilis drove her vibrosword viciously into the fourth one that had shot Trask in the shoulder. It had hit too close to the heart of the soldier who'd become a good friend to her since she'd been assigned to the ship for comfort.
She made him wait until the arm was at least partially usable again thanks to his medpac before they began moving again, this time with her taking point.
When she opened a door after AT burnt the two Sith guarding it to a fine crisp with his flamethrower, she was shoved roughly back by Trask before she could react. He shot a glance at her over his wounded shoulder and yelled, "Get out of here, Bren!" before he palmed the console and slammed the door shut in her face.
Leaving him locked in with a Dark Jedi.
AT beeped sadly and bobbed in the air briefly before bumping her shoulder. She blinked at him then looked at the closed door before turning and running towards the only other door in the corridor. As she palmed the wall console and it slid open, she silently said a short prayer for Trask. Sure he'd been a straight-laced Republic soldier but he'd treated her like a regular crewmember – unlike the rest of the crew, who seemed to think she was a pile of bantha poodoo.
Bursting through the door onto the bridge a few seconds later, she leapt at a uniformed Sith who rushed her with a long sword while his armored partner stood back to take potshots at her. She dodged one shot and her blade clashed with the Sith's in a flurry of sparks as another shot skimmed her right shoulder. Then AT darted forward and enveloped the blaster toting Sith in a sheet of flame, causing him to go down in a screaming heap. The Sith Eilis had locked swords with made the mistake of looking towards his fallen comrade and the technician-slash-smuggler took the opening he presented and shoved her sword past his armor into his heart. He let out a surprised gurgle and collapsed as she tugged her blade out of his chest.
"Beep beep brrr beep!"
"Blast killed them?" said Eilis as AT came back from inspecting several Sith and Republic soldier corpses near the front of the bridge. The consoles around the bodies sparked from blaster damaged and what looked like deliberate sabotage to her technician eyes. If the captain had ordered the navicomputer and other important bridge consoles destroyed or if the soldiers on the bridge had done the deed on their own it meant just one thing.
She had to get off this ship faster than a Gizka running from a bloodthirsty Kathhound.
"C'mon, AT, we've gotta get to the escape pods. Hopefully they didn't take 'em all in a mad rush to get off the ship or we're screwed."
"Beep beep."
"Huh? What beeping?"
The dark-haired smuggler was suddenly aware of the wrist communicator she'd been given upon joining the Endar Spire's crew beeping. How long it had been going was a mystery and she nervously pressed the talk key, hoping that whoever at the other end wasn't some Sith trying to hunt down the last of the Spire's crew.
"…yeah?"
"This is Commander Carth Onasi. Are you alright?"
Eilis frowned for a moment then blinked. Carth Onasi? One of the best pilots in the Republic fleet? What were the chances of ending up on the same ship as him! She then had a horrible thought and asked, "How do I know you aren't a Sith trying to trick me into telling you where I am so you can come and kill me?"
"Trust me, sister, if I were a Sith, I wouldn't have bothered with the communicator."
"Heh, you're right," said Eilis with a chuckle she didn't put much feeling into. "Sith can barely work blasters, let alone get a COM to work. Speaking of Sith, we got any escape pods left so we can get the hell away from our new shipmates?"
"There's one escape pod left," replied Carth, his voice crackling with static for a moment. "And as far as I can tell, we're the only one's left alive on the ship."
Eilis paled severely at that, thinking of the ship roster she'd hacked into in her first few days on the Spire for fun. There had been at least six hundred people on it, over half of them Republic soldiers! And several of the rest had been Jedi!
"Hey? Hey, you still there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," replied Eilis. She shook her head briefly and put the thoughts of the dead crew out of her mind. Right now she had to think about getting herself off the Spire, not about the dead she couldn't save.
"Give me ten minutes," she said to Carth as she eyed the ceiling above her head. "Then we can blow this joint."
"Ten minutes!" came his voice, laden with disbelief. "There's at least fifteen Sith between here and the bridge!"
She blinked and asked, "How'd you know I was on the bridge?"
Carth sighed and replied, "I can track your communicator from down here. But that's not the point! Unless you've got a stealth field generator, you're not going to be able to get past those Sith. And even then the chances are slim!"
The technician-slash-smuggler gave a husky chuckle and purred, "Now who said I was going the usual route? See yah in ten, Commander." She shut off the communicator before Carth could reply and turned towards AT with a grin.
"Get out your plasma torch and make me a hole in the ceiling, AT. We're taking the high ground. Let's just hope I remember the schematics of this place right…"
"Beep broop brr!" exclaimed the droid, extending another arm from one of his two top compartments. He floated up to the ceiling and went to work, burning a hole through the panels on the ceiling and straight up into the ventilation system that ran through the ship. There was a creak of metal as he finished and Eilis jumped back to avoid the ceiling panel falling on her. She glared briefly at the droid then bent her knees and jumped, fingers flailing for the new hole in the ceiling. Her hands were scalded through her gloves by the still heated metal but she didn't make any noise but a grunt as she levered herself up into the ventilation system. AT bumped around her shoulder so he could light her way and she smiled.
"Now I remember why I keep you around," she commented as she began to crawl after the circular droid.
AT buzzed at her in offense and she smiled.
"Just kiddin', pal. I'd hate to sneak past those Sith without you. Now, c'mon. Let's go surprise the Commander."
AT beeped an affirmative and bobbed along in front of her as they navigated the ventilation system. After a brief drop down to another level and another two-and-a-half minutes of crawling, Eilis ordered the droid to slice a hole in the bottom of the ventilation shaft but not the ceiling panel. It took him longer than it had to make an opening into the system since he had to be more careful but she was glad she'd had him to do it. Otherwise she'd have been screwed with her tools still sitting in the hangar bay.
Grabbing onto the sides of the ceiling panel, she pried it up and peeked down into the room below, fully expecting to see a friendly face. Instead she found a red armored Sith looking up at her in what could only be surprise.
"What the…"
Frack, she thought.
"Oh, sorry!" she called, grinning slightly. "Wrong room!"
"Tear apart the ceiling!" shouted the rather obvious Sith commander as she tugged the panel back into place and began to crawl furiously down the ventilation shaft. "And get that door open! I'll have the head of whoever let's her escape!"
"Brip breep," commented AT as she ordered him to open another hole in the ventilation shaft, this one like the first he'd made. She could only hope that this room would be the one with Carth and the escape pods in it.
"Yeah, nice, ain't they?"
Moving above the cut out area her droid had made, she pulled her legs up in the small space of the ventilation shaft and kicked out. Her heels hit the loose piece of metal with a clang and it dropped, taking the cut section of ceiling panel beneath it with it. She heard a shriek from AT and looked back down the shaft to see a Sith's armored helmet come into view through her previous hole. His blaster appeared a few seconds later and she shoved the little droid through before dropping herself down into the room just as he fired.
The back of her head clanged against the side of the hole AT had made and she saw stars as she landed in a heap on the floor. She heard AT beeping wildly in fear and then large, callused hands set her up, making her force her eyes open. A man's face came into bleary view (as well as the rank pin on his collar) and she smiled, knowing fully well it couldn't look good, and said, "Hiya, Commander."
The man grunted and asked, "You're the woman on the communicator?"
"Yeah," mumbled Eilis, wishing the pounding in her head would go away so she could think and see clearly. "What, am I late?"
"No," said Carth, but the sound of blaster fire on the other side of the blast door negated that. It wouldn't be long before the door got open at that rate.
"Time to go, I think," she said, trying to push herself up onto her knees. But the second she tried that, her vision swam and she would have completely collapsed had it not been for Carth's hands on her shoulders. "Please make the room stop spinning first, though."
There was a grunt from the man beside her then she heard a squeal of protesting metal from the direction of the blaster fire. The Sith were forcing the door open…
Strong arms wrapped around her back and underneath her knees suddenly and she was lifted up off the floor before she could realize what happened. Her vision cleared enough that she could see Carth's face and realized he was carrying her to the remaining escape pod. AT was already in there and was beeping furiously while diving about in the air.
"Enough!" shouted Carth at the droid at the same moment Eilis finally got what her little friend was acting so weirdly about. She look over Carth's shoulder, absently noting the horrible orange pilot's jacket he was wearing, and saw the Sith commander shoving one arm through what part of the door that was open, his blaster aimed at the Republic soldier's back.
A surge of energy rushed through her and she plunged a hand into one of the pouches on her belt, coming out with one of the frag grenades she'd taken from the first Sith she and Trask had killed. She flicked it on with her thumb then hurled it towards the door just as the Sith commander fired.
Carth just happened to turn in time to make the shot hit her outstretched right arm instead of his back.
A second later Eilis found herself and Carth blown into the escape pod by the force of the grenade's blast. She landed awkwardly on one of the seats and would have been all right if he hadn't landed on her. Her head banged harshly against the side of the escape pod as AT slammed himself into the button that would send them away from the Spire and she dimly heard Carth shouting to strap in.
She tried to focus her thoughts to follow his order but after two head blows she just couldn't get her mind to wrap about it. Carth's voice yelling in her ears and AT's horrified shriek were the last thing she heard before they entered the atmosphere of the planet they'd been passing. Her head hit the side of the escape pod again and her body decided it had had enough.
Everything went black.