It's almost over. I can't believe it's almost over.
A blast from the thermal charges I set on the elevator doors caused the ground beneath my shade-grey boots to hurl violently, the following heat wave all but bowling me backwards. The door that once impeded our progress existed no more, the only relic of its existence taking the form of steel shrapnel needles whistling in every direction at near the speed of sound. Immediately following the blast, a singing cloud of red blaster bolts burst through the wall of smoke that had pervaded the narrow hallway. Instinctively, I ducked behind the cover of the warped metal doorframe, responding to the crimson chorus with a few of my own azure DC-15 rounds. Artemis followed suit and crouched next to me defensively, her own barrel flashing through the condensing smog during her pass. Miles and Winchester had sprawled themselves behind the adjacent doorjamb, with the latter occasionally taking potshots through a small crevice that had formed from the blast. The glowing comets were growing more numerous now, effectively pinning the rest of my squad inside the elevator.
For an indefinite amount of time, the rain of fire continued to pour in from the hall, crisping the surface of the elevator's backmost wall. Come on, I egged the wave of energy that continued to surge past me. I felt the familiar raise in blood pressure tense my arms. One of my grey-armored fingers was beginning to twitch. Just one little gap...
Finally, the thick cloud of vaporized metal began to dissipate, as did the searing hail. Must be reloading, I assumed. Now or never.
Letting loose a battle cry to signal the squad, I whipped around from behind my distorted shelter, opening fire on the channeled pool of white-armored bodies gathered a few meters before me in various crouching positions. The sound of other DCs rattling away behind me confirmed that my comrades got the message.
First order of business: gun down that trooper on the left with the extra ammunitions casings, I thought as I rolled myself back behind the crumpled steel frame once more, dodging another wave of bolts. Try and target the thermal detonator clipped to his belt for a lovely explosive effect.
Weaving low from my shelter to avoid the cluster of ivory soldiers clinging to the cylindrical barricade in front of me, I brought my DC-15 to my shoulder again and fired in midstride, jerking the nearest Stormtrooper's head backwards in an absurd arc. His E-11 sprayed a spasmodic trail of rubicund light along the ceiling as he collapsed in a pile onto another trooper. Likely to be the sergeant, I realized when I saw the orange pauldron twined around the soldier's right elbow. I relieved him from duty with a swift swing of the barrel and a twitch of my index finger.
Behind the cover of a power regulation column, I relaxed slightly and began to assess the situation in full. The hallway was lined with vertical slot-like white lanterns that were built into the wall, which burst with a mild flare of heat when hit. Intermittently placed columns like the one I was bracing myself against alternatively spaced the slender corridor I was traveling, Stormtroopers holding ground behind many of them. Another door lay at the end of the path, the face laced with horizontal, deathly red bars.
The emperor lies beyond here, I thought. Just one more push.
I howl into the mic inset under my enhanced visor screen. "Miles, I'm going to try and spearhead the left side. Cover me on the right!"
"Aye, Commander!" Miles barked back.
Moments later, a flurry of blue beams whizzed past me, clipping the helmets and torso plates of the crowd behind the pillar I was taking shelter in. "You're clear, GO!"
I took one final glance at the white battalion before me, rifles loaded and aimed down the corridor. This could be fun, I mused, an iron grin slowly growing behind the shadowy helmet as I checked my ammo counter and began dashing to the next column.
Bap! Bap! Bap! Another triple burst ripped through the ammunition toting trooper, an eerie smile seared onto his lower chestplate. Ducking behind the next beam, I waited for Miles to insert his quota of shots down the hall, sweeping out the barrier I was taking refuge behind.
I patched into the main channel through the interior headset once more. "Artemis, once everyone's out of the elevator, toss in a detonator and send it away!" Blue seared my vision as Miles' shots cleared the hallway. I heard a static-clouded scream of pain from the other end of the hallway, signaling my turn to move forward. The blood red blast door lied only a few columns ahead.
Taking flight across the channel once more, I fired at the detonator still cinched to the trooper's belt and dove just as the shock wave impacted my charcoal armor and sent me at an awkward tumble towards the wall.
Commotion suddenly livened the comm system. "Dammit, Nova, how many times have I told you to warn me when you're gonna set off a fierfek'n detonator in a hallway?!" Miles was yowling in protest.
Mildly dazed, I quickly brought myself into a standing position and lifted my DC to my shoulder to fend away any incoming survivors. Nothin'. I swiftly peeked around the lofted surface of the column to check for any signs of life. Through the wall of smoke, I couldn't detect any signs of life. A lone lantern gave its best effort to brighten the foggy hallway, but it only accomplished to form a fuzzy outline of itself through the slate haze.
Behind me, I heard a grating of metal as the last train to the main spire of the Death Star made its spastic descent back to the surface. More will be coming soon. I thought back to Winchester's wisecrack remark during the mission briefing. Just another reason for us not to stop and pet the mouse droids while we're in there.
A ringed cluster of tiny, teal LEDs sliced through the invasive smog as Miles walked towards me. "Commander?"
I stood still for a moment, considering my options. We could bust down the door with another charge… or have Miles quietly hack his way into it. The more of a jump that we'll have on them, the better.
"Unfortunately, I don't think that the element of surprise is on our side, Commander."
Turning, I straightened from my bent position, addressing the voice through the gloom. "Welcome to the party, General Greenwood. Nice of you to join us." And please, General, can you stop reading my mind all the time? I added mentally. It's uncomfortable.
If the brown haired Jedi had acknowledged my psychic plea, he made no response towards it. Instead, he turned slightly and replied, "The pleasure would be all mine, but I didn't come alone."
In the dispersing fog that had accumulated around them, I could identify the features of several other Jedi standing behind the General. He managed to scrape up General Scraps, Commander Atzen-arc and Lannera? We might actually have a fighting chance at arresting the Emperor after all.
"Good to hear, sir," I responded, genuinely feeling more certain about the outcome of the mission leaning in their favor. I waved over Miles to the door, stepping skillfully through the slightly melted piles of armor littering the floor. The control panel was still fully intact somehow, with only minor singeing and a thickening layer of black dust betraying that it had ever seen a military compound. Summoning Greycube into its transit forme, the pair immediately went to work on the system, probing away at the wires and screens like they always did. I looked away for a moment, gazing back down the claustrophobic path at the group of Jedi sharing status information with Winchester and Artemis.
"Wait, if we already disabled the elevator, how did you manage to get up here in the first place?" Artemis objected.
Lannera pointed in the direction of the now hollow elevator shaft, a glaring maw that seemed to grope for anything foolish enough to come within proximity. "We took a secondary service path along the main elevator. It was likely used as the Emperor's private passage to the spire. We exited from the column over there." She shifted her sights to the nearest cylindrical protuberance. "Nova thinks we missed the fun part, but..." She trailed off, that trademark smirk glowing through the smoke. "We had plenty of old friends to deal with on the way up here as well." She absent-mindedly twirled her lightsaber in her hand, glancing over in my direction.
Visibly, I nodded my head in respect.
In my mind, I smiled at her.
Another voice next to me woke me from the trance I began to delve into. "Alright, Nova, I've almost got it, just a bit more and it'll give..."
I turned to Miles and observed him tapping away at the small grey device as if it was an average credit distributor. Impishly, I was on the beginnings of asking him if he had experience with the Republic Credit Union when I noticed it.
In the corner, next to one of those steel semi-tubes.
A Stormtrooper collapsed in a sitting position.
With an E-11 still glued to his hand.
It was aimed directly at Miles' exposed neckseal.
Already, I heard lightsabers being activated at the opposing end of the corridor, but I was closer. Without thinking, I roundhouse-kicked the blaster from his hands and followed the revolution with a violent club to the sly trooper's helmet with the butt of my DC-15. The impact left a massive dent on the side of the trooper's helmet, killing him instantly, but it wasn't enough to stop the final signals from reaching the nerves in his hands and squeezing the trigger one last time.
The projectile only managed to kill the final vertical, white lamp illuminating the end of the hall, plunging the rest of the segment in the deep red from the door's lamps and various splashes of other colors from active lightsaber blades. Miles stared blankly through his headset at me, his dark mask as placid and emotionless as ever. His body language, however, sported nothing but sheer surprise.
For a while, nobody said anything, the only sound being lightsabers hissing in the disappearing haze and humming from the conduits buried beneath the walls, pouring electricity into those awful crimson beams embedded into the blast door. Strangely enough, Miles was the first one to speak up, his voice mildly unsteady.
"Door's ready to open, sir..."
I couldn't help but audibly chuckle. "Miles, you know I'm not about to let some Spaarti make mincemeat out of you," I reassured my Marshal Commander with a hefty pat to the shoulder plate, leaving an abstract handprint in the soot layering his teal Esk emblem. I then turned to the assembly behind me. "Squad, into positions at the door, stat!"
Like clockwork, Miles took his position on the left doorframe, Artemis the right, and Winchester claimed his location a few meters back, engaging his modified scope onto one of the DCs. I then marked my own position exactly one meter behind Miles, slightly offset at an angle from the blast shield's entry zone for maximum targeting range. I could hear the footsteps of the Jedi behind us taking their positions, lightsabers mumbling as they passed through more dust.
Finally, Miles gave the hand signals to prepare for entry. Ready or not, Emperor, here we come.
The glow of the blast door quickly vanished as it abducted itself upwards into the main frame, revealing the spacious black interior of the throne room.
And sitting calmly, almost nonchalantly in the obscenely tall black seat, was the traitorous Emperor Palpatine himself.