== Chapter Thirty-Six ==

"Now what?!" Ja'Ina yelped as the Fool's Pride rocked with another explosion.

Kath flipped a couple of switches and pulled on the steering yoke. "It's more of those damned TIE fighters! One of them clipped our backside." He pointed out the forward viewport. "Look!"

Ja'Ina saw the Skimmer not too far ahead, also being attacked by the Imperial fighters. She could see that most of the shots went wide, seeming almost purposely so. The two ships banked left in unison to avoid the concerted blasts. This put the Star Destroyer in view directly ahead of them.

It took only a moment of gazing at the leviathan that filled the front viewport before Kath realized what was going on. He activated the comlink. "Come in, my boy! The Imps are trying to reel us in! Get as far away as you can from that Star Destroyer!"

"I'm trying, old-timer!" Den replied in frustration. "Those fighters are insistent on herding us toward their mothership!"

Rann insistently grabbed Den's shoulder. "Please! I'd rather die than be in their hands again!" His own fear only increased with hearing the intense fear in her voice.

Den couldn't avert his attention away from flying to look at her. "Don't worry, I won't let that happen!"

"You don't understand! They tortured me! They burned my leg off!" She slapped her mechanical leg; the mechanical leg she fought so hard for so long to not hate.

He quickly glanced at her. "I know!"

Rann flinched as if she had been hit with a shock prod. "You do?!"

Den pulled hard on the controls in an attempt to turn away from the Star Destroyer, but was forced back by another volley of emerald blasts. "Berini told me plenty about how they betrayed you after taking a hit job from them." He tried banking another direction, but with the same result. "Then she warned me not to break your heart, or else she'd space me and use my body for target practice!" He flashed her a quick grin.

For a brief moment, Rann relaxed in spite of the dire situation. "I see," she said with a smile, knowing that Berini would carry out such a threat.

"I won't let the Imps have you. I'll destroy the Skimmer and us with her if need be."

Rann's eyes went wide. "You'd do that for me?"

"Yes," he said with a nod. "If you think I'm gonna let you go without me, you're sadly mistaken!"

"Thank you," Rann said, in the verge of tears.

Den looked at her with a reassuring smile. "I love you-" The ship shuddered violently and his warm countenance quickly deformed into one of dread. "Oh, no…"

Berini, Mylyn and Gartia stumbled through the wrecked corridor as they made their way towards the Queen Valkyrie's hangar bay. Aurelia rode in Berini's hefty arms with her own wrapped tightly around the Captain. Small localized explosions broke throughout the ship and flashes of amber light from burning wreckage flickered throughout. Besides Mylyn's hand-luma, the flames were all that was lighting the way to escape.

It didn't help that the air grew thinner and the artificial gravity continued to ease its grip on the trio. It was as if the crippled ship didn't want them to leave during her final moments.

A loud, unnerving metallic screech filled the corridor, accompanied by a trembling in the deck plates. Gartia and Mylyn looked at Berini with both worry and confusion.

The Captain answered their unspoken question. "The ship's being pulled down by the planet's gravity," she said with painful sadness. "Her hull is straining from the forces. She might tear apart before we can escape! Let's get the duracrete out of our boots!"

After a few tense minutes carefully traversing the ruined corridors, they made it to the hangar bay. In the light of the hand-luma they could see that the hold was a mess with debris, equipment and storage containers strewn all around. The Valkyrie-One sat on the far side with light visible from within. The Twi'lek Myrrna was standing next to the compact shuttle's rear entry hatch. She called out to the trio.

"It's about time you made it! In another minute we would've left you behind!"

"Good!" Berini replied as she stepped up to her first officer. "That's exactly the order I would've given you."

Myrrna nodded. "I know."

The Queen Valkyrie shuddered violently, causing everyone to fall to the deck. Aurelia tumbled out of Berini's arms with a shriek. More explosions roared through the ship.

Berini pushed herself back up. "Is everyone else aboard?"

"Surprisingly, yes," Myrrna replied as she steadied herself against the side of the shuttle.

"Alright, everyone move it!" the Captain yelled with repeated insistent hand swipes toward the shuttle's hatch.

Inside, Tira, Taam, Juun and Teedai were already strapped into their seats. Berini sat at the pilot seat with Myrrna at the copilot seat next to her. There were only six seats aboard the small vessel so Taam gave hers to Aurelia. The injured teen smiled a silent thanks to the Twi'lek, who went to huddle with Mylyn and Gartia in the cramped rear cargo area.

Berini activated the shuttle's systems and Myrrna opened the ventral bay doors from the remote control on her console. While the doors slowly slid open as they should, the magnetic shielding which would normally hold the atmosphere within the hangar bay was inoperative. As soon as the bay doors began to open, the air began to forcefully escape the hangar, pulling everything in it towards the opening. The shuttle's ion engines were still in the power-up cycle and the repulsorlift generators were overloaded by the vacuum's pull, so it too skidded along the deck out of control toward the slowly-growing opening. Inside the rocking shuttle, everyone forcefully shook within their seat harnesses and many screamed over the deafening rumble.

Berini repeatedly punched the controls as if it would speed up the activation of the thrusters. "Hang on! It's only going to get rougher!"

Myrrna looked at her. "Those doors better be opened wide enough for us!"

"That goes without saying!" Berini hollered back, annoyed by the unnecessary statement.

Suddenly, a large cargo container slammed into the shuttle and violently spun it around. Everyone screamed as the small ship threatened to tip over from the force of the impact. The shuttle was now sliding sideways toward the bay doors. Everyone in the starboard seats could see the doors out their viewports.

"They're still not completely open!" Teedai screamed. The young Mirialan fearfully bent down with her head in her lap.

The hangar began to fill with fire from multiple explosions, further adding to the chaos. The flames swirled around within the hold in a tempest of hellfire as the airflow dragged the shuttle towards the ventral doors. The shuttle's engines finally came to life and Berini fought the controls to turn the ship aft-first toward the doors. She then maxed the thrust to counter the pull on the shuttle's movement, hoping to give them enough time before reaching the still-opening doors. The small craft shuddered from the shearing forces that strained the fuselage near the point of destruction. As the Valkyrie-One reached the ventral doors, it tumbled backwards out of the mother ship. All aboard the shuttle were pulled hard against their seat restraints as Berini fought to stabilize the ship's attitude.

"We're caught in their tractor beam!" Den yelled as he quickly ran through a sequence of switch throws and button presses on his console. "It's too powerful for the Skimmer's countermeasures! She just can't handle something as huge as a Star Destroyer!"

Rann slumped down in her seat with a blank expression. "We're doomed," she muttered emotionlessly.

"Hey, don't count us out so quickly!" Den activated the comlink. "Skimmer to Fool's Pride; come in Kath!"

"What is it, boy?!" Kath grumpily replied. "I'm busy right now!"

"The Imps're pulling us in! We could use your help!"

"What do you think we're doing here, getting a massage in a Zeltron spa?! Those sithspawn hooked us too!"

Den shook his head. "Not what I wanted to hear, old-timer!" He deactivated the comlink before Kath could snap back. He turned to Rann, who had turned ghostly white. "I'm sorry," he grimly told her.

Without looking up from her lap, Rann replied, "That's okay. It's not your fault." Her voice fearfully quavered, but was otherwise monotonous.

Den turned back to the console and deactivated the Skimmer's engines with a heavy sigh. He then sat back in his seat. "Here's what we'll do. We'll let the Imps pull us into their bay-"

"What?!" Rann cried in dismay.

Den grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Hold on, hold on. Once they've secured us and the boarding party enters the Skimmer, I'll activate the self-destruct. At least we can take a few of them with us, and maybe even redecorate their hangar."

Rann smiled through her tears. "Good, I like to take every opportunity I can get to kill filthy scum Imps, even if it's not by my blaster."

"Well, my dear," Kath said as stroked Skink's fur, "what do you want to do now?"

Ja'Ina bit her lip and shook her head. "I don't know. I just don't know." She could see nothing but the Prosecutor's massive form out the front viewport. "I guess that's it. The Empire's gonna have us in their grasp soon." She trembled with the terrible realization.

"You do know what that means for Force-sensitives don't you?"

"Yeah, Spiaré told me about how he barely escaped the Purge while he watched his master fall to the clone troopers' guns. We even barely escaped a Jedi hunter on Orvax before we arrived at Yuulin."

Kath rubbed his grey-stubbled chin. "I woulda liked to meet this Spiaré. I haven't seen anyone from the Jedi Order since that terrible day." He grimly gazed at the young woman. "Once the Imperials have you, the best you can hope for is a quick death."

Ja'Ina's heart sank. Her spirit was utterly smashed by her inescapable fate. "There's nothing more to do but wait for the inevitable. I'll say whatever I can to protect you. I can say we hired you for passage without telling you what we were."

The older man shook his head, causing his long grey locks to swish slightly. "Don't worry about ol' Kath, sweetheart." He pointed his thumb at his chest. "He can take care of himself! I just wish I could take care of you…"

Ja'Ina sat silent for a moment then blurted out, "But you can!"

Kath looked at her, confused. "What in the galaxy do you think I can do for you?"

"You said that all I can hope for is a quick death. Given the choice, I'd rather it be by you."

He shot forward in his chair, causing Skink to roll off his lap with a screech. "You better not mean what I think you mean!" He nearly choked on his words.

"I take great comfort in knowing that you'd give Kurloh and me a quick and painless death." She pointed at the blaster on Kath's belt.

"It doesn't take a head doc to see that you've officially lost your mind!"

Ja'Ina grimaced. "You're right about the Empire. Given what they did to the Jedi, it looks like a quick end wouldn't be in their plans for us."

Kath stepped over to Ja'Ina and crouched in front of her. He locked his eyes with hers. "There's no way in hell I'd abandon you! They'll have to kill me before I'd let them take you or Kurloh."

Ja'Ina fell out of her chair and into Kath's arms. She squeezed him as tight as she could. "Thank you!" she cried into his chest.

He wrapped one arm around the petite young woman and gently stroked the back of her raven-haired head with his free hand. "Everything'll be alright," he whispered as a father would comfort his daughter. He looked out the front viewport at the Star Destroyer that loomed ominously ahead then glanced down at his blaster. He didn't believe his own words for even one second.

Ona frantically juked and rolled her Z-95 as best as she could, but her efforts weren't enough to avoid the relentless blasts from the pursuing TIE fighters. Her ship rocked with each connecting hit and alarms constantly blared and flashed. The fighter grew less responsive, and the Anzat knew that unless Vorven was coming to her aid, her time was at an end.

Vorven wildly flew his own Z-95 to the absolute limits of man and machine attempting to intercept the TIEs behind Ona before it was too late. He roared in rage when the fighter refused to offer him any more speed. He madly squeezed the trigger on his HOTAS, letting loose another barrage of laser fire towards the TIE fighters tailing Ona's ship. From the great distance, his inaccurate shots went wide. Vorven's wits were completely gone, replaced by primal anger and fear. The last vestiges of mental coherency were all that kept the Anzat flying, but that coherency was quickly fading. All he could focus on was defending his mate, who was in dire straits and would not last much longer without his intercession.

For an instant, something caught the edge of Vorven's sight. He glanced away from Ona's fighter to see the Star Destroyer nearby in low orbit. The sight of the large Imperial ship only heightened his anger.

"Vorven!" Ona's voice screamed from his headset's earpiece.

He quickly turned his attention back to Ona. Her Z-95 left a steady tail of smoke as she blazed out of control through the vacuum of space. He watched as the TIE fighters fired upon her once more. The blasts tore through Ona's fighter and it blew apart in a fiery explosion.

For a moment the debris-laden fireball seemed to freeze in time and Vorven's rage reached an incomprehensible level. "NOOOOO!" As the flames disappeared and the tumbling bits of star fighter could no longer be seen, every nerve in the Anzat's body went numb. His mind distorted everything in his field of vision into multi-colored smears like still-wet paint. Clamping down on his teeth tighter than a vice grip, Vorven pulled his fighter full-thrust toward the Star Destroyer, ignoring the ship's mechanical protests. There was only one thing he wanted now – revenge; first for taking his mate, and then for taking the Force-sensitives.