Once again, I'm very sorry about the mishap a while back where I deleted my story and reposted it. My bad.I hope this'll make it up to you.
I found some time to write another chapter, so here goes.
CHAPTER 2:Homecoming
Lothal
Horatius was not in the best of moods. He had decided to join the Ghost crew in their rebel pursuits. Ezra too had decided to join the team, and had been promised Jedi training from Kanan, after revealing his connection to the Force to Kanan by opening up a Jedi Holocron using the Force. However, Kanan kept delaying the promised lessons, much to Ezra's chargrin. Ezra had settled in relatively comfortably well into the crew, bonding quickly with Hera(who seemed to be the maternal figure in the crew's lineup), and was on good terms with Kanan(the 'dad' figure?) and Sabine(who was friendly with him despite his obvious attempts at flirting). There was still quite a bit of friction between Zeb and Ezra though; partially because Zeb had left Ezra behind during the affair with the Wookie slaves, leaving Ezra to get himself out of imprisonment, and also because they now had to share a room with each other, something neither was happy about.
Horatius' transition into the crew wasn't as smooth; perhaps that was because he had thrashed more than half the crew in combat, when he had tried to hitch a ride with them, to generally poor reception. Hera was happy to welcome him aboard, as she knew someone with his skill set could be very handy:with underworld contacts, proficient fighting ability, weaponry and technical know-how, and other such useful skills. Kanan, however, wasn't as happy about him joining the crew. Something about bounty hunters being an untrustworthy lot, and him besting a Jedi, which, apparently was not possible for a bounty hunter. When Horatius had reminded him of how clones had wiped out most of his kind, Kanan had almost ignited his sabre, only for Horatius to lazily quip,"Master Jedi, do you need to be reminded what this bounty hunter can do, without any weapon? How's that dent in your head healing?"
Seething, Kanan had put his lightsabre back onto his belt, and stormed off, muttering,"Kriffing son of a.."
The mandolorian, Sabine Wren had taken her defeat good-naturedly, commending Horatius' prowess and even asking if he was willing to teach her some of his moves. Horatius had agreed, thus earning himself another friend on the crew. The Lasat too, was wary of him. Feeling that payback was necessary, Zeb had been trying to catch Horatius by surprise, to no avail. Horatius was getting tired of Zeb's attempts at surprise attacks and pranks, and was considering letting the Lasat win once, to get some peace of mind, and not having to go from one room to another without being on guard for a Lasat coming head on at him screaming,"SURPRISE ATTACK! FOR THE GLORY OF LASAN!"
Like a wrecked, barren planet could have any , out of respect for the Lasat, Horatius had decided to not bring that up.
C1-10P, the Astromech with an attitude way bigger than his stature, affectionately known as "Chopper", had welcomed him with tiny robotic arms open wide and a happy chirping that shocked Hera(according to her, Chopper wasn't nice to anyone, ever). After watching Horatius take down three of his crew mates, Chopper had made him his hero, and dragged him all over the ship on a "special tour", complete with info on just about every nook and cranny of the ship. It had been hilarious, when he showed him Hera's cabin, adding that sometimes Kanan visited when the rest of the crew was asleep. The look of fury on Kanan's face, and Sabine and Zeb's attempts at keeping their faces straight and not laughing, was enough for Horatius to put two and two together.
Ezra had been friendly too, but had not talked a whole lot to him, as he was busy trying to get Kanan to start tutoring him in the ways of the Jedi. Horatius was reminded of a family he had once lived with when he had been stranded on Tatooine(his V19 had a torn coolant hose). The boy in that family was strikingly similar to Ezra, not so much in appearance, but plenty so in manner.
His reception, however, was not the cause of his bad mood. That was because he had been left on the ship with Hera, while the others got to go out and steal some on the other imperial shipment. And then, he was once again been left behind on the Ghost while the others sold the T-7 Ion Disruptors(like the one Zeb used) they had scored to some dirtbag named Vizago. Zeb had been against selling them, vouching to destroy them instead. He understood why. The killing in the massacre of Lasan was done mostly with T-7s. Now, the Spectres' deal had been cut short with the arrival of the bucketheads, lead by big bucket, a.k.a Agent Kallus.
The commlink buzzed to life,"Hey, ass! We need to go! Start up the engines and lower the ramp!"
It was Kanan.
Innocently, Horatius replied,"Spectre 1, What's my name?"
"ASS!", came the angry reply.
"Bzzt. Wrong answer. Say it. Say my name."
"YOU KNOW I CAN'T, FOR CONFIDENTIALITY'S SAKE!"
"Then say my callsign. You know what it is. Say it."
"WE ARE GONNA DIE! OPEN UP!"
"Well, do you really want your ego to kill you all, Spectre 1?"
A pause, and a sigh.
"I can't believe this is happening. Spectre 7, can you please lower the ramp?"
"Ten-four, good buddy!", came the merry reply.
A few moments later, "Spectre 7, all are accounted for! Go, go, go!"
"Taking off now."
As soon as we were in the air, Hera came running into the cockpit and plopped herself in the pilot's seat. Taking control, she said,"Not bad, Horatius. Not many can fly my ship. It took Kanan a week to get the hang of taking off alone."
"Well, that's Kanan, isn't it? I doubt he could climb and ride a Bantha without help."
"You shouldn't be so hard on him, you know. He feels undermined, after being beaten by an unarmed stranger. His pride has been wounded."
"I see."
"Then again, it is good to put himself in his place, every now and then.", Hera said, flashing him a smile. Horatius grinned. Hera really was the best.
"So did I miss anything important while you were dealing with Vizago?"
"Well, when the buckets arrived, Kallus challenged Zeb to a duel. As Kallus was about to finish Zeb off, Ezra used the Force to throw Kallus, allowing our escape. Zeb'll be alright with a little rest. Also, the two droids we picked up earlier-C3P0 and R2-D2-we're going to return them for a reward. Even though the T-7s got destroyed, we'll still get some money from the droids' safe return."
"A somewhat happy ending, I guess."
"Kanan is going to start Ezra's Jedi training tomorrow.", added Hera.
Horatius smiled at that."Ezra must be very-"
The conversation was interrupted by a beeping on the console. The proximity alarm had been set off. Suddenly, two Star Destroyers and three light cruisers dropped out of hyperspace. Hera, got on the Intercom. "We're under attack! All spectres, battle stations!"
Kanan rushed to the central rotating turret, Sabine got on the nose gun, and the Zeb, still hurt, manned the rear guns. Hera made the Ghost do a backflip
and punched the throttle to max. Ezra rushed into the cabin with Chopper just as multiple shots hit the Ghost. Ezra was thrown into a console facefirst and got electrocuted; he slid to the floor unconscious. Horatius got out of his chair, picked the teen up, and strapped him to the comm operator's seat. Chopper wheeled out to the main hold, where a fire had broken out.
Horatius pointed to an asteroid field up ahead."Go into the field and hide in one of the caves, you won't be able to make the jump to hyperspace wihtout neing blown to bits. Find a spot to hide, power down, and wait. I'm going to get some help. Don't leave, just wait, or the cruisers will get you."
"What-?"Hera began, but Horatius put his finger to her lips, and said,"Trust me, I'm going to get us out of this. I'm taking Zeb and the Phantom."
With that, he left a flustered Hera in the cockpit.
As he rushed to the shuttle, he ignored Kanan shouting,"What're you upto?", and made his way to the shuttle. Yanking Zeb out of the seat, he disengaged the Phantom and flew out of the field. Quickly laying in the course and dodging the veritable rain of turbolaser fire from the cruisers, ignoring Zeb's protests, he pulled the throttle and made the jump.
"What the heck's all this then?", inquired Ezra, once he'd woken up, feeling downright terrible, when he realized that Hera had set them down in a deep crater's cave, and then turned off everything but heat, life support and Chopper.
"And where did Zeb and Horatius go off to?", Sabine added as a follow up question.
"What were you thinking, Hera, setting us in an asteroid field, surrounded by an Imperial convoy on all sides? We're trapped!", Kanan burst out.
"Everybody quite down."Hera sighed."We were taking heavy fire from the Destroyers. If we took one or two more hits like that, we would've died. Horatius pointed this small field out, where we could hide and carry out repairs. You can thank him for that."
"Thank him? He took Zeb and the Phantom with him. We're stranded, in the middle of an asteroid field, in a deep cave, surrounded by imperials! So if we're going to be grateful for being handed a godforsaken death sentence, then yes, whoopee! Thank you, Horatius! I've always wanted to die in the middle of nowhere!"
"Oh, shut up, Kanan. He bought us some time. He told me he's going to get some help, to get us out of this mess."
"You trust him? A bounty hunter?"
"He isn't a bounty hunter, anymore. He's a Spectre. And that title is a promise: we look out for each other. When we were getting away from Kallus when the T-7 deal went south, he was there for us, when he could've just taken the Ghost as compensation for his wrecked V19 Torrent!"
"That wasn't intentional!", interjected Sabine.
"But-", Kanan began to argue further, but Hera silenced him with a look, and told him, "The only reason you don't like him is because he beat you with ease and without a weapon! Your pride is wounded! Admit it already."
"It's not just that! What if he's a sith or an imperial spy, judging by his ruthlessness and ability?"
"His fighting wasn't antything like the styles they teach in Imperial Training. BASIC or ADVANCED, for that matter. It was...a mix. The way he dodged and responded..I'm thinking Mando, some Wookie Elite Guard, and even some of the Jedi melee forms. And then some more.", provided Sabine.
Ezra, who had been quiet till now, piped up,"Kanan, if he was one of the Sith, we'd all be dead by now."
In his heart of hearts, Kanan knew the others were right.
"Kanan, I have a good feeling about Horatius, like we can trust him. He'll come through, he's not the sort to break others' trust.", Ezra added.
Kanan took a deep breadth, and nodded."Let's hope you're right kid. Now, let's get to repairs. We need to be ready to hightail it out of here if-when-he shows up. Chopper, fix up any external damage on the ship. Ezra, grab a space suit and go with Chopper. Take a toolbox and patching kit. Fix any breaches and leaks you can find. Sabine, do a diagnostics on the engine and hyperdrive. Do what you can. Hera, monitor and inform us off anything you see or needs to be done. I'll be fixing the control circuit box for the guns, it got dinged up pretty bad by the fire in the hold. Spectres, get cracking."
Everyone, knowing their duties, got to work, all the while praying that Horatius and Zeb would successful, and would get back in time to save them from all the imperial prowling about.
In another asteroid field, near Coruscant
The Phantom jumped out off hyperspace at the edge of the field.
Looking out, Zeb asked,"Where the hell have you brought us? We need to go back to the others! They're in trouble!"
"I know they are in trouble. I told Hera to hide in the asteroid field, and to wait till I got back."
"Why'd you tell her to wait?"
"'Cause I told her I'm going to get help. That's what I'm going to do. My ship's set down here somewhere. Now keep quite while I make a call."
The tone in his voice must've been pretty authoritative, or severe-pick one-because Zeb didn't argue, and sat down in the back.
Activating the comms, Horatius broadcasted the code phrase on the agreed channel:"A sunny day in the void, isn't it?"
A moment later, the comms buzzed.
"Renegade Leader, is that you?"
"Affirmative, Renegade Two. I'll explain everything later. Right now, get the shp ready, we need to 've got some friends who are in trouble, and need our help."
"About that, Renegade Leader..."
"What's the matter, Renegade two? Don't tell me, you set the ship on fire."
"What?! No! It's not that. Although, the ship might get destroyed, if you don't get here. Immediately."
"All right, send me the coordinates of the cave you're camped out in."
"Sending coordinates now."
"Received. We're on our way now. Be there in a bit."
"Where're we going?",called Zeb from the back.
"Home", Horatius shouted back.
Zeb stood next to Horatius in the cockpit, as he piloted the Phantom slowly into a cave in one of the larger asteroids. As he watched, a frigate came into the view. It resembled a Hammerhead Corvette, but was significantly different. The Hammerhead's iconic front section(where the bridge was), which was curved, was way buffer and better armoured than a typical hammer head. Besides the two turrets on the sides in the front, the middle section had rotating turrets, six on each side:port and starboard. The back section had two turrets as well, one on top, and two on the bottom. The back section had four fins, one each on the port, starboard, top and bottom. The fins looked razor sharp. The ship itself was bigger than a hammerhead, and had three hanger doors.
There were boosters scattered across the ship's surface, at different angles. Across the hull, a faded grey and white clone trooper was running with a rifle in his hand was painted. By his side, were four droids:Three astromechs, and a pit droid, chasing after him. The word Breakthrough was stencilled on the port side, in faded paint.
"Renegade Two, we're in front of Hangar door 3. Open up."
"Now opening. Good to have you back. We were getting worried."
As soon as the duo walked out of the shuttle, they were greeted by four droids. Horatius held up his hand, gesturing for them to cease communicating, for a while, anyway.
"Good to be back, everyone. I missed this place, and am happy that Renegade Two didn't burn the ship down. As you can see, I have brought a friend. This is Captain Garazeb Orrelios, of the Lasat Honour Guard. You can call him Zeb. No, Gold, he's not a hairless wookie with skin infection! He's a Lasat, they're different!"
Zeb growled.
"See? Wookies roar, Lasats growl. Big difference! Although, I'm pretty sure they're droid-dismantling methods are the same. So, behave. Zeb, allow me to introduce my crew, known as the D Squad, during the Clone Wars."
Gesturing to a magenta droid, Horatius said,"This is QT-KT, or Magneta, the Comms Officer." Magneta stayed quiet, studying the stranger.
"This is U9-C4, called Gold. He's the weapon's specialist, and artillery officer.", pointing to a golden droid, who chirped out a greeting.
"Now, this here, is AZI-3, our medic. He has the ability to change form from Astromech to Medical droid. We gave him that ability to disguise him. He is wanted by the Empire. You see, he discovered a conspiracy that the Emperor, back when he was the Chancellor of the Republic, didn't want people to know about. He's called Fives, in homage to a fallen friend of is."As Zeb watched in surprise, the navy blue C1 astromech turned into a Medical Droid, who warmly greeted the Lasat in a reedy, computerized voice:"koh-to-yah, Captain Orellios!"
"Um, hello to you too?", replied an uncertain Zeb.
"All right, all right. What was the problem you wanted to tell me about, Cyclops?"Said Horatius, referring to the last of the gathered droids, a rather beat-up pit droid.
"There's an imperial patrol headed here. A squad of Shock Troopers, who detected the ship when we powered up the reactor for a bit to move the ship when the cave we were initially in collapsed when another asteroid struck it. Scans indicate twenty of them headed here in a Lamda-class shuttle! They'll be here within the hour."
"All right, here's the plan: WAC-47, I mean Cyclops, sorry; lift the strutlock and power down everything but the Life support and gravity. Gold! Switch off the turrets' MagLock and point them in haphazard directions. Magenta! Engineer a fake distress signal, and make it extremely weak. Fives, go lock down the reactor room and the cockpit. Open up the cargo hold door, and lock up the others. Withdraw three of the struts, randomly, so that the ship look tilted. We're going to make this ship look like it's been abandoned for ages. When the troopers board, we'll take them out one group at a time. They'll probably split into two groups:one headed for the cockpit, and the other to the hangar and storage area. And Zeb?"Zeb looked up, wondering what his part was going to be.
"You up for some bucket-busting?"
Zeb gave his answer in the form of an evil grin.
"This is Buccaneer Team, heading in to investigate a slight reading we noticed a while back in a nearby asteroid field.
We are now landing at the incident site."
The Lambda-class shuttle Intrigue landed before the frigate.
"The ship is a frigate, looks like a modified corvette or something. Looks like some kind of accident took place here. The ship is tilted, and we're getting no readings from inside the ship, just a weak distress beacon that looks like it's been running for a while now. The cargo hold door's open, we'll enter through there, take a look around."
The twenty Shock Troopers disembarked the ship, leaving their pilot droid in the ship.
As soon as they boarded, the Captain took one half, Team X, to the cockpit, to retrieve the flight recorder and see it the ship was still flightworthy. The other half, Team Y, led by a Lieutenant, went to check the hangar, and the storage area adjacent, to see if anything of value could be salvaged. This was a standard op, one of several their unit had dealt with, as ship-related incidents came into the Shock Troopers' jurisdiction. The troopers were bored as hell. Unfortunately for them, things were about to get interesting.
The pilot droid K6-X1, monitored the troopers' progress and transmission. K6 was a little worried, as the asteroid field's clustered arrangement interfered with comms and made communication outside the field more or less impossible. K6's thought process was interrupted by a sudden inslaught of transmissions.
"GRENADE! TAKE COVER!"
FIZZT. The signature sound of a SHOK-D4 shock charge set to kill being set off.
Suddenly, the vital signals for six troopers of Team Y went dead, signalling death.
"WHAT IS THAT EMERGING FROM THE HANGAR ENTRANCE! WATCH OUT! IT'S USING A BO-RIFLE! AAAARGH!"
Another Y vital sign went dead.
"OH, GOD! IS THAT...A WOOKIE?!WHERE'S THE HAIR, AND WHY IN THE BLAZES IS IT PURPLE?"
"LOOK AT IT'S EYES! THEY'RE YELLOW! MUST BE RADIATION SICKNESS!"
A bone-chilling growl was heard over the comm."I. AM. NOT. A. FRICKING. WOOKIE!"
Two shots being fired off a bo-rifle were heard.
The signs of the troopers who had been talking went dead. The bo-shots had met their mark. This was followed by the sound of heavy steps, frantic blaster fire, and the sickening sounds of bones breaking. The last two survivors of Y-team had just met their end.
K6 fired up the engines. He had to get away and warn the Empire! Before he could reach for the landing brake release lever, a cannon came out of a slot in the curved elongated front section of the ship. An ion cannon. The cannon fired one single burst. As soon as the Intrigue was hit, it shut down, its electronics disabled. The droid, K6, coming into the category of 'electronic', was disabled too. Buccaneer Team wan't headed anywhere, except, perhaps, Hell.
The captain, who was leading X team to the cockpit, had heard the whole thing over his comm. Further more, contact with the Intrigue and K6had been lost.
This worrying turn of events led him to believe they had walked into a trap. The ship was not as desolate as it looked.
He decided to press on towards the bridge. The 'not a Wookie' couldn't catch up, as it was a pretty long jaunt from their location to the hangar.
Suddenly, one of his men, shouted,"Halt, who goes there? In the name of the Galactic Empire, identify yourself!"
"Show yourself, you coward!", cried another one of his men.
Out of nowhere, two bolts of blaster fire came, and hit the two men who had spoken. They crumpled limply, dead.
"I'm no coward. A coward is someone who takes over the galaxy using innocent men under his control to do all the dirty work. Like that Emperor of yours. You know, the one who still hasn't grown a pair, even though he's like what, 400? Then again, judging by all those wrinkles covering him, he doesn't really really need a pair, does he? I mean no one in the whole Universe will want that, will they?"
"Why you vile son of a bantha-trading, scum-drinking-"
Bang. Bang.
Another two men dropped, including the one who had just been insulting the unseen shooter.
"What are you?",asked another one of his men, a rookie.
"Your worst nightmare.", came the reply, echoing off the walls.
Out of the shadows, emerged a man in white and grey armour, brandishing twin combat pistols, with a long-range rifle slung over his back, and grenades lining a sling attached to his chest plate.
Without further ado, the man shot three more men before they could react, and dived behind a wall. Quickly, a grenade was thrown from behind the wall. The shock grenade took out another man. The captain rose to fire from his safe position behind a crate to fire, only to see another man get shot in the head, and saw a bolt coming at him, and felt it struck him in the throat. Pain engulfed the captain, he knew what was next, a slow and painful death. Turning his head, with great difficulty, to look at the man who had bested him and his men, he rasped,"Stranger, please.."
The man in white and grey armour approached him, blaster in hand.
"Kill me. Please.", begged the Captain, wanting a quick ending.
"All right.",replied the stranger."But not because you told me to."
Horatius took aim, and fired, putting the Shock Trooper captain out of his misery. As soon as he did, the power came back on. The droids, having seen that all hostiles had been eliminated, had restored power.
Horatius took deep breaths, his pulse still racing. His eyes were wide, and his heart refused to slow down. He could hear the voices again, of his comrades, his brothers. All the people he had watched die. He heard explosions and the rhythm of battle droids marching into battle, guns blazing. It felt like yesterday...
Horatius felt a tap on his shoulder, and jerked around, pistols ready, only to see Cyclops and Fives.
"Woah there! We're friends, remember? Anyways, power has been restored, the landing struts realigned, and the threat neutralised. All in a good day's work! I'm going to take Magneta with me to bring in the imperial shuttle outside. Remove the transponder, and boom! We have a new addition to our current lineup! See you in a jiffy!"Cyclops said all this very fast, and ran off, cackling madly at the prospect of a new salvage. Once, Cyclops had left, Fives came forward with a draft of calming nectar. "You had another episode, did you not? From your time in the war? You're still hyperventilating. It Must've been a pretty intense episode. Now, drink up. It'll help, trust me."
Horatius, took a swig, with shaking hands. In a few moments, he began to feel much better. His breathing eased, the voices subsided, and his memories faded away.
"Ah, mucho better! That's one hell of a pick-me-up you brewed up.",remarked Horatius.
With a satisfied hum, Fives continued, "Your friend, Zeb, is in the hangar waiting for you."With an amused beep, he added,"Gold and the Lasat captain have become fast friends, it seems."
Horatius smiled. Gold loved weaponry of any kind, and the bo-rifle was one of his favourites. Anyone with a bo-rifle could count on making friends with Gold with ease.
"All right, I'll head there."
On reaching the hangar, where the droids and Zeb had assembled, Horatius gave the droids a recap of what had happened while he had gone. The part with him thrashing Zeb, Sabine, and Kanan was met with applause, much to Zeb's annoyance.
At the end of it, Magneta stepped forward, and asked in beeps,"Have you finally found us a family, somewhere we'll belong?", on behalf of all the droids. Horatius replied with a smile,"Yes, I have."
The droids chirped happily at that, with Fives and Cyclops, supplementing the chirps with "Yowzah!" and "Booyakasha! At last!"
When he told Zeb, who didn't understand binary, he too, grinned. "The more the merrier", he exclaimed, with a 'pat' that left Horatius breathless. Seeing him gasping for air, Zeb added mischieviously,"We're even now, Payne. What's next?"
It was Horatius' turn to grin. "Now we get back to the asteroid field where the Ghost is parked out, and we give the imperials hell. With love, from the Spectres."
With that, we conclude the second chapter! I'll add the next chapter next week, give or take a couple of days. So, sometime around the weekend, I guess, is when I'll post next. Hang tight till then!
Do leave a review to voice your thoughts on my work!
See you next week!
MTFBWYA,
Demoltioneer