Chapter 10
The klaxons blared, breaking his concentration. It blared, and cast a red light on the ship.
Making his way to the bridge through the chaos, he wondered what this was about. When he did, he found out quick.
They were above a forest-green planet, surrounded by Imperial Star Destroyers. There was an Interdictor Cruiser in the center that they were nearby."
He heard Red curse words he'd never heard before. It seemed that they came into a trap.
"All hands man you're battlestations, all pilots, man your fighters." The alarms stated.
"Alright," Red announced "We had a good run, but we've been found. We might as well go down fighting."
"Wait!" Balthazar yelled. Red looked at him. "What is it you have in mind?" he asked.
"I was thinking we could trick them into thinking we're dead." Balthazar answered. "This way, we could just slip out of the system when they're gone."
Red looked at him for a moment, before turning back "All pilots" he said through the PA. "Stand down, we're trying a different tactic." He turned to the operators "Let's drift towards the planet. We're gonna try and trick them into thinking we've crashed. Set a course for the surface, and have the guns look like they're fighting back."
The operators nodded and started to go to the controls. From looking at the tactical display, it seemed like they were taking the bait.
For a moment, everything seemed fine. Then the lights went out, and a lurch was heard. Then the red glow-panels lit up, and the controls turned back on.
Looking at the ship status display, it seemed like a major part of the ship had lost operation; the main drive engines and the communications systems.
"Sir," a Calamari operator spoke up "We're drifting towards the planed at a rather steep angle, damaging impact also."
"What does that mean? Speak plain Basic!" Red yelled. "Sir," The operator said "We're going to crash."
The Bothan running the ship status controls started to speak up "We've lost power in the forward and lateral drive engines, power to weapons, shields, and comms."
Balthazar had a spur of the moment idea "Do we have power to vertical drives?" he asked.
The Bothan looked at the display, pressed a few buttons, before answering "Yes we do, what do you intend?"
"Have us land like a rocket." Balthazar said "That'll lessen the crash." The people then looked at him, before Red added "What he said."
Immediately, they started to enter atmosphere. The air started to ionize when the pilot started to work the controls, struggling to make it work.
The ship started to shake, groaning becoming louder as the seconds went by, feeling like hours.
The pilot had a grip on it when the ship hit something, and everyone blacked out.
…
Balthazar woke up to an empty bridge. It was dark on the bridge, while the outside was also dark.
He heard forest sounds from the outside, and looked around. It seemed that everyone was gone. The stations were shut down, the chairs had been pulled back.
Getting up, his head hurt like crazy. He felt around his hair, drawing his fingers out, feeling for blood.
Thankfully there wasn't any. He wondered where everyone went. He heard clunking footsteps coming from the hall.
Spinning around, he thought it was a Stormtrooper, because he ignited his lightsaber.
The door opened, slowly, groaning with each second as it struggled to open.
He saw a dirt-covered Clone Commander instead. "There you are." Red quipped "Right here where I left you. Though now you've woken up." He took off his helmet. "I was hoping you wouldn't come to 'til morning."
Balthazar thought for a moment what this all meant. "You find out where we are." He asked.
"Yeah," Red answered "We're on the forest moon of Endor."
Balthazar looked at him for a moment, then at his hands, then finally figured it was a might-as-well.
"I'm going to bed" He announced. "I feel like I got hit with a sack of bricks." He made his way back to his cabin, and fell asleep right on top of the bed.