LL3 37 The Odds Change Color
Kess found herself in a large library with database terminals towering in short rows.
She spun around and her blade crashed against his again, but dropped her wounded arm and balanced it in the air behind her back, taking a sideways, fencing stance.
Kadaan gave her a grin at her brave position and reached back for another hard swing. Kess strafed back and lowered her blade out of the way so that Kadaan's lightsaber would sail into a terminal instead of hitting hers. The metal sizzled under his blow and electricity spat out of the hardware.
Kadaan pulled back and swung the other way. Kess again whipped her blade out of his way, denying him the chance to overpower her. She tapped his blade tauntingly, making little circles in the air at him, whipping the blade back in forth in front of his face, not giving him enough time to take the offensive again.
Kadaan stepped forward again, and Kess realized her mistake as a half a dozen stormtroopers poured into the room and washed around the rows of equipment, moving to get behind her.
Cheenan's mouth twitched as he focused on another flock of Y-wings sailing down at his ship and firing rapidly. His TIEs screamed in all directions, more being chased than on the chase. Two Star Destroyer's of his fleet were already disabled by the Y-wings' poisonous darts.
"Admiral, we've lost our deflector field."
Cheenan set his hands on his hips and glared out the window to the fatal efforts of his battle group and he decided that it was time to pull out the ace up his sleeve.
The special weapons were meant for Yavin 4 surface. There was an auxiliary battle group. They were to clean up the mess on Yavin 4 after the battle was over, but they were a full day away. He'd be dead in an hour if he didn't do something now.
Kadaan would probably lose his temper on Cheenan's throat if this idea didn't work, but Cheenan firmly decided that he'd be dead in short order if he didn't do something anyway.
"Arm the chempods," Cheenan ordered gruffly. The order was echoed to the rest of the battle group. "Launch one each at their Capital Ships." That order was also echoed. He turned back to the window, staring down the frigate Victory that stared down him, and let the words fall from his lips. "Fire at will."
Han was trying to ease the Falcon down on the Vengeance's front porch. The pounding of Lando's gun in the upper turret rattled the hull with each fire. Chewie kept his eyes peeled and fired off a couple of shots on the forward guns at any Imperial that looked like it was coming their way.
"Are they disabled yet?" Luke's voice came across the comm as he yanked his body out of the turret chair.
"No," Han told him, "But the shields are down and the upper turrets are out. We'll be able to fight off the TIEs, but it won't be long before the whole thing blows, so be quick."
Kayla and Luke rushed to stuff into the underbelly of the Falcon. Kayla moved to the airlock, getting it ready to lower the evac tube.
Luke loaded a blaster and stuffed two spare cartridges into his belt. He spat impatiently into the intercom, "You've got to get us in there first."
Kayla rubbed the sweat from her palms to her pants legs and pulled up on the large mechanical handle. "You sure she's in this part of the ship and not the bridge?"
Luke didn't answer right away. He stared at the lower hatch door at his feet, now the only safety between them, and the vacuum of space. He sensed out to Kess and found her light only metres away, shining as bright as the sun and busy as a starving bumblebee.
He had to get in there.
He tightened his grip on the hilt of his lightsaber. "I'm sure."
Kess strafed back to the far wall, knowing it would be easier to block shots from the side than from behind. The troopers came around the corner the same time she cleared the rows and started shooting at her. Kess scrunched to the ground on strong thighs, letting the first wave of shots sail over her head and jumped back up with the Force. She brought her feet up to her stomach as she crested, and brought them down on top of the two rows of terminal towers.
Kadaan brought his blade upward to slice her in half from the bottom, but she dove onto the roof of a tower and rolled once to flatten her body on the top of it.
Shots fired at the ceiling around her. She sensed out Luke, just a metre away, and realized the Falcon was trying to land onto the room next door.
Kess rolled over onto her stomach and barely peeked over the edge of the terminal. Two stormtroopers were on that side, aiming their shots closer to her. She flicked her fingers at one of them. "Shoot the wall."
As ordered by a Force Persuade, he turned around and blew a hole in the metal bulkhead.
The terminal jerked with a blow then jerked again as Kadaan sliced away the electronics, trying to get her down. Kess rolled off the other side, landing on the stormtrooper that was aiming at her, and slicing the arm off the stormtrooper that blew a hole in the wall for her. Before any of the others could get around the row, she ducked into the room next door.
Through a wide set of windows, she saw the Falcon's fat hull clamping down onto the Star Destroyer sideways. She darted to the side of the hole and slashed down at the first blaster rifle that poked through. Her eyes darted to the Falcon again and an evac tube crept toward the window like a big mosquito getting ready to draw blood.
She sliced off the next arm that tried to enter. The stormtrooper crumbled to the ground on the spot. Kess went towards the window, placing herself in front of the evac tube's destination, happy to be that blood.
Looking up sideways at the front of the tower, Lando saw it before it showed up on anybody's monitors. A single missile fired out of the bridge tower, one like he'd never seen before. The large pill-shaped pod quickly gained momentum with its thrusters pushing behind it. Lando didn't recognize the markings and thought it odd that a concussion missile would have a serrated point of a nose. He squinted as it sailed over his head, "What the hell is that?"
Luke straightened his shoulders when he detected the worry in Lando's tone, but Han spoke before Luke had the chance. "What the hell is what?"
Then Han saw it, and recognized it. He flipped the switched on the console, "Victory, you've got incoming. It's a chempod. Get out of its path."
Chewie's eyebrows slanted and a shadow of horror crossed Han's face.
The odds of the battle just changed color.
Apparently, someone on the Victory already recognized it. Escape pods shot out of the Victory's hull like hot corn popping off the ear. Han watched the missile hit the Victory's polygon nose, dead center, burrow itself into the hull, and disappear.
The thick rank of death saturated Luke's senses and his eyes watered as if he had just walked into a cloud of tear gas. He could feel flesh instantly rotting, and he could hear the pain in the screams. He fell on one knee at the sucking drain of hope. "We'll never last against chempods."
Lando kept his eye on the missile silo of the Vengeance to report any other pods, and Han tried to get back to the business of landing the Falcon and settled half-cocked on the Star Destroyer's hull. "Go kid."
"Right," Luke said.
Han listened to the sounds of the lower hatch in his headset. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Victory still moving toward them.
Most of its crew were already dead at their stations. All systems go. Attack forward.
Han stared wide-eyed as his hands moved faster. "Actually, kid, don't open it at all."
The Victory slowly corkscrewed in their direction. Its hang-tail spun upward as it drifted head first towards the Vengeance. Han yanked the Falcon off the Star Destroyer's hull.
"No!" Luke cried.
Kayla reached a hand as if she hoped to grab Kess' hand through the hull and pull her through space.
The Falcon's pace quickened away before they could open the hatch.
Luke's face burned red as he shot up the ladder well to rip Han's head clean off.
The sudden movements of the Falcon brought Kess' attention to the window. She saw the disc ship fly away with splintered metal falling from its landing claws. "No!" She cried out, reaching to the window as if to grab a hold of the thing as it flew away.
The distraction gave Kadaan his chance. He nailed her blade with such a powerful blow that it went spinning in the air away from her. The ship rocked with an unseen explosion and the electricity sputtered away as the Vengeance was disabled. Kess set her feet apart to keep from falling over on the rocking deck, but Kadaan's sure footing allowed him to bring his blade to her neck.
Kess inhaled through her nose and put her hands in the air for surrender.
Kadaan pulled away his blade and instead belted her across the ear with a fist. Her head went dizzy and blood oozed from her hair. She was still standing when she flopped against the wall. Her body slapped so hard against the hard metal it looked like she'd fallen vertically onto it from two metres.
Kadaan stormed to her and closed his fingers around her throat, pressing her back up against the window. He picked her up by her neck and squeezed. Kess struggled for air, grabbing his collar in desperation. Her senses flickered and her eyesight began to fade, and then realized that she's lost control of her ability to function just before she passed out.
Kadaan watched her slowly go limp and dropped her. With a stiff glare, he grabbed her arm again and dragged her hastily out the room like a rag doll.
The gravity well rocked as Han dipped under the Victory, just metres from being crushed between the two bigger ships.
Luke tore onto the cockpit with panic in his eyes and anger in his voice, "Han! Land this ship!"
"Can't, kid." Han hissed between his teeth, yanking on the stick to pull around the next Star Destroyer for cover from the evident explosion. Luke grabbed onto the back of the passenger chair to keep his balance.
The Falcon screamed passed the next Destroyer's bridge, almost uncaring about the direct hits they were getting. As the Falcon banked, Luke saw why Han had left so quickly.
The Victory slowly corkscrewed across the battle line and dove right into the Vengeance's lap.