Sylicer Piett steered the ship to a hard left as the green ion bolts bounced off the ship's right deflector shield; they were losing power, and losing it fast.
"Reroute all main power to the rear shields!" ordered co-pilot Khodex. "We need to get out of this mess!" She glanced at the power gauge to reassure herself that the power generator really had been shot. The red light guaranteed her that they were running solely on stored power.
Cassus, the team's engineer and technician, ran back to the power room and flipped a few switches, "Done!"
The Moongazer had been taking hits from the republic fleet for what seemed to Sylicer like hours, though in reality, it had only been a few minutes. Despite his honed piloting skills, he was unsure of how much any maneuvers would matter against an entire republic fleet. His ship had been ill prepared when they had departed from the spaceport; he hadn't even bothered to boot the ship's secondary systems, including the hyperdrive. Had it not been for the team's urgency to leave behind the memories of this planet, they might have been more heavily inclined to assure the ship's readiness.
The Imperial operative team, code-named V-Force, was caught in the middle of a republic raid on an Imperial mining facility located on Yavin 13. Sylicer and his crew had been undercover as miners in attempt to thwart the rising cult, the Black Sun. The mission had proven to be a success, but at the cost of a valued team member, Velrock Vu. Velrock had blown an entire corridor of the mine to prevent the cultists from destroying billions of credits of Mica, a rare mineral and one of the Imperial's largest economic profit bringers. The sacrifice had cost the team a very courageous bounty hunter and skilled demolitionist.
Shortly after mourning the loss of their companion, V-Force's ship, Moongazer, had left the spaceport and was en route to the Imperial Fleet to receive their next debriefing when they got caught in the attack.
"What's the republic doing this far out in the Outer Rim?" Khodex mumbled to herself. Suddenly, out of the left corner of her eye, she noticed three enemy fighters flying for their power supply. "Veer right!"
Sylicer mashed the ships controls rolling it to the right, just barely dodging the incoming missile from one of the fighters. He glanced down at the hyperdrive gauge; it read 80% to full power. He knew they would need to make the jump to hyperspace soon, if they didn't, they'd be reduced to rubble within seconds.
Sylicer was born and raised on the planet of Alderaan. His parents were killed in a vigilante raid at the age of three. His foster parents worked as guards for the Imperial seat in the large city of Aldera. After his childhood, he became a bodyguard for one of the nobles located on one of the many estates that are essential to Alderaan's aristocratic monarchy. At age 22 he had suffered severe damage to both of his eyes after taking a sonic blast from a rebel spy. He had caught the spy infiltrating the local Imperial security network, and had given the spy a chance to surrender; before he knew what was happening, the spy had discharged a shot from his sonic rifle and Sylicer had taken it full on. To repair the damage, cybernetic lenses were placed in front of his eyes to help enhance and optimize his vision. His excellent vision and quick thinking was exactly what the Imperial Intelligence was looking for at the time. Intelligence scouts located on Alderaan recruited Sylicer and sent him to their academy three weeks after his surgery. The agency found his natural skills and adaptive fighting to be far more advanced than most of their current agents; as a result, they promoted him to the rank of Cipher Agent. In addition, they assigned him the lead agent position on V-Force.
Khodex was a Human who had joined the Imperial Intelligence from the age of 18, immediately out of her schooling years on Naboo. From a young age she had always wanted to be a spy, and the Imperial Intelligence division offered exactly what she was looking for. She progressed through the ranks of the system twice as fast as any other agent. Currently she is an operations strategist for V-Force; in the past she has been known for her espionage and devious undercover work.
Cassus is the most bizarre of the three. Born into the unintelligent race of the Evokki, he had been one of the lead rebels who sought to overthrow the new Hutt government on their home planet Hutta. He caused enough trouble that the Imperial's sent him to a prison cell located in the Imperial Citadel on Dromund Kaas. Being an Evokki, Cassus was born with severely limited intelligence and lacked most of the mechanical skills that many sentient beings have.
The Imperial's had recently developed an EI (Enhanced Intelligence) chip that can be inserted into any sentient brain; the chip expands an individual's brain capacity, as well as improves reflexes and the travel speed of nerves through the spinal cord. Cassus was one of the EI division's first test subjects. His expanded knowledge and quick reflexes has turned him into a skilled technician and an excellent support gunner. When Cassus was first assigned to V-Force, Sylicer had doubted his abilities; but after witnessing his quick reflexes and pinpoint accuracy, Sylicer was quick to make him a permanent member of V-Force.
"On the left Khodex!" warned Sylicer as he attempted to steady the ship for Khodex's next shot.
"I've got him now," whispered Khodex as the republic fighter flew right into her crosshairs. At the flick of the trigger, a red ion bolt was released from the main turret and collided with the fighter's fuel tank, producing a blinding explosion.
Sylicer glanced down at the hyperdrive gauge as he shaded his eyes from the explosion. The meter read 90%, exactly what it read about 2 minutes ago.
Great. That's just what we need right now, he thought.
"Cassus!" beckoned Sylicer.
Cassus slid out from under the control panel where he had been making adjustments to efficiently make use of the ship's remaining power. "What do you want?"
"The hyperdrive isn't powering up, I need you to get back down to the engine room and see what the issue is! We're running dangerously low on time; the next direct hit we take will drain the remainder of our shields!"
"Right away sir!"
Cassus stumbled through the entryway to the cockpit as the ship was hit from the shockwave of another ion blast. In a matter of seconds, Cassus had the ship's maintenance panel open and was climbing down the metal ladder into the engine room. Upon quick examination of the hyperdrive, Cassus noticed that one of the power couplers had been jostled loose during the skirmish. After some quick soldering and welding, the coupler had been reattached and the hyperdrive was receiving power.
"We're all good captain!" Cassus shouted through the intercom.
"Great! Now get up here, this isn't over yet!" Sylicer blared from the cockpit.
Two missiles more missiles were fired from a cruiser up ahead; Sylicer managed to just barely veer the ship down as the missiles flew by, snapping off the Moongazer's communications antenna. Sylicer was getting tired; he hadn't flown like this since his early days at the academy. Up ahead, he noticed that two Republic cruisers were flying parallel to one another, while another was flying up from the bottom. They were trying to trap the Moongazer.
Sylicer glanced up at Khodex; instantly he was distracted. He loved the way she kept her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail whenever they were flying and eagerly awaited the minute they'd dock and she'd let it down and flow around her head. He had to admit that he'd been in love with this woman since the day he entered the academy. He'd met her on one of his first simulation missions; they ended up working extremely well together and set the course record for that mission. Thus the agency had assigned them to work alongside one another to complete most of their training. To Sylicer's dismay, Khodex had been assigned to Gamma Force which operated in Hutt Space, quite some distance away from Sylicer's charge of the Outer Rim.
When he had heard that she was being reassigned to V-Force, he'd gone out of his way to make sure that they would be assigned to the longest mission available. Being offered the mission on Yavin 13 was the perfect assignment. Of course, the only thing he was thinking about was the long flight times and all the extra time spent working with his green-eyed lover.
Khodex looked up at Sylicer. "Did you not hear me?" she shouted. "The cruisers' targeting systems are locking on to our ship!"
Sylicer pulled himself back to the present. "How close are they to receiving a solid lock?"
"Based off our speed and distance from the cruisers, I'd say about 30 seconds."
"Blast," Sylicer cussed under his breath. He stole another look at the hyperdrive gauge, it read 98%. Yet another close call for V-Force, he thought.
Sylicer watched Cassus stumble into the cockpit to find a seat next to Khodex. In the dim lighting, his dark brown skin and deep brown eyes looked almost like… no, he had to be imagining things. Cassus had only been on V-Force for the last two missions, but he'd already proven to be more skilled with a rifle than anyone else that had ever accompanied the team. His quick shooting and resourceful thinking had saved them many times on Yavin 13.
"They've locked on!" screamed Khodex. "Our scanners report that they've also launched a volley of proton torpedoes; there's no shaking them!"
"Not if I can help it," Sylicer mumbled after taking one final look at the hyperdrive gauge. "Hyperdrive is fully charged!"
"Punch it!" pleaded Khodex.