Ok, here we go, lets cut to the chase and get straight into the action. If you were reading this as I posted it weekly, here is where a 'previously on' would sit!
Chapter 15 - One does not simply waltz off a star destroyer!
The destroyer rocked again and I was thrown into the wall of the long corridor I had been running down. The floor tilted and suddenly I was almost at forty five degrees to the floor, with one foot on the wall.
Troopers were running all over the place and mouse droids beeped and squealed as they blurred past me. I continued moving forwards, totally ignored by troops and officers who had much more important things to worry about, but I did have the sensation that I was still being followed.
"Coward!" Roared Connie's voice inside my head. "Have the courage of conviction to follow through your actions, not simply dessert them!" She was approaching, getting closer. "You would have made an excellent partner, now you will die!"
"An excellent partner?" I asked, my mouth not moving. "Hunting and murdering children? Did they steal your soul?"
Then I had to duck as a red lightsaber came hurtling towards my head. She was just down the corridor, arm outstretched, helmet back on. The sabre twisted in mid air and flew back to her, cutting deadly slashes in the corridor walls. She screamed again in frustration as I turned and ran suddenly finding myself in one of the engine rooms, so I must have been at the rear of the ship. The core hummed and crackled and several engineers scurried around with tools as pipes were spitting out steam here and there. I continued through the room avoiding the people in here until she appeared in the doorway and screamed "Stop him!". This caused many heads to snap in my direction.
A trooper happened to be a few feet away and he levelled his blaster at me, but I was quick enough to force pull it from his hands and into mine. "I really need to get off this thing." I said, to nobody but myself.
I aimed at her, but as I did I could feel the weapon straining in my hands as she tried to tear it away. Then another explosion rippled through the ship sending everyone flying.
I found myself in a pile of equipment so I made a grab for whatever I could, the blaster now long gone, and got myself out of there and into another corridor. As I ran I looked at my hand and saw I had a hydro spanner. Great. Also my hands were covered in blood. Even better.
There was a sickening squeal of metal twisting and I turned again to see her a ways behind me, arms outstretched again. He helmet was now broken, a large part of the front missing and from this distance I could just make out the side of her face, one eye burning with hot rage.
"What the hell is happening?" Yelled a trooper to an officer as he ran by. I took off behind them, trying to keep up.
"No idea! We must have run into a mine field or something. There are huge explosions on the hull!" The officer yelled. I assumed they must be heading for the escape pods so I tailed them until they noticed me.
"Hey you!" Yelled the trooper. "You're the prisoner!" He raised his blaster but I had covered too much ground and was able to swiftly smash him around the helmet with the spanner. Now you probably think the helmet saved him, but as all troopers would tell you, those suits of armour were more for show at that point in time.
"Where are the pods?" I shouted at the officer, aware that she was approaching once more.
He pointed down the hallway. "That way and take a..." That was all he could get out because suddenly he was grasping his neck. Then his head twisted at an unnatural angle and he crumpled to the ground.
"I'm getting tired of this bitch!" I muttered as I took off again. She wasn't running, just moving at a steady pace, never stopping. I assumed I would have to face her properly at some point.
I turned a corner to see a crowd of bodies all pushing in one direction. "Pods must be that way." I said to myself and turned the other way just in time to be rocked by another explosion. The whole ship seemed to shake.
A little ways down the hall I found myself in a hangar with several walkers and AT-ATs. This was obviously the ground assault hangar. Not very helpful to me, I needed a TIE or a shuttle or something.
Small explosions were happening all around me and now she was in the hangar with me. I looked for a way out but saw nothing. Another exit was on fire and there was debris everywhere. I backed up but it seemed like the end of the line.
"Nowhere to run!" This was her real voice, tinged with the robotic sound of her mangled helmet. She was close enough fo me to see one side of her mouth curled into a sneer and the burning hate in one eye. "You have destroyed everything!" She screamed, her voice high and deadly. "We could have been the most feared in the galaxy!"
"If you wanted a date you could have just asked!" I yelled. "There was no need for the chair of pain!"
Again she screamed and started to run towards me, lightsaber ignited, ready for the kill. Then there was another huge crash and explosion as part of the hangar wall caved in. There I could make out a part of the Piccalo's hull. Could it really be or was I just imagining things?
Blaster fire started to ripple through the air as troopers from the adjacent area tried to fight off the crew of the Piccalo but the random nature of the ship's destruction made any kind of battle very difficult to fight.
Connie was again picking herself up from the ground, casting her smashed helmet aside, hair flying wild in the wind. There was a storm of fire, wind and steam, blaster bolts everywhere. Then I heard a familiar voice.
"Hunter!" It was Mal. "Here!" He threw something into the air, and I jumped, moving myself away from Connie and extending a hand to catch it. I landed on both feet in a crouched position and looked up. She was now only about ten feet away from me, having covered some quick ground across the smashed walkers.
"Now I have you!" She growled, rearing back her red blade and bringing it down, but it was stopped, clashing with my own purple blade. The lasers crashed and squealed as they made contact, flashing and blurring.
She tried again, a hammer blow from above but this time I parried and moved swiftly aside. Frustration was taking over as she violently swung at my head. I ducked out and made an attack of my own, which she was barely able to recover and parry. Now we squared up to each other.
It is important to note at this stage that there are many styles of lightsaber combat, those trained in the arts have their styles and methods. While I was training in isolation I had gained the materials to read so that I would know these styles and be able to work against them. I could tell immediately that she was employing the Djem So form, aggressive and less mobile. I had wondered why because she was actually slim and athletic build, but now I noticed one of her legs was not moving freely. It could be a prosthetic from the way it moved, explaining the use of the form. A form I knew to be used by Darth Vader, who had trained the inquisitors.
Had she been considering the same question of my form, I would expect she would have come up short of answers. I had taught myself to use the sabre, and as such I had no real form, just a pile of instincts and reactions. She didn't yet know that I also fought dirty, a little left over from my marine days where any tactic that helped was a good tactic.
We squared off again, moving across the hangar away from my friends. I could hear them in battle with the troopers, and the sounds were becoming distant so they must have been driven away a little.
We headed for a corridor and she slashed, and I parried. Then several more blocks and parries, leaving slashes in the wall. We were moving along a corridor, her forcing me backwards, always looking for an opening. "Your fighting style is sloppy." She laughed. "This will be easy!"
"It gets the job done." I replied, trying a one two combo, left and right which she was able to deflect. Without warning she chopped down from overhead and I skipped backwards falling into a deeper stance. She seemed surprised to see me switch so quickly, and more so when I leapt into the air. We were in another hangar, this one full of TIEs, but none looked as if they could fly because the destruction of the ship had ravaged the hangar.
She ran forward and began a flurry of blows which I blocked, parried and dodged, occasionally pulling in a counter of my own, but she was fast enough to match me. I could tell I wasn't going to win this with power or speed, so I flipped over her and attacked from the opposite side, a quick thrust to the chest followed by a swipe at the leg. Nothing, she diverted those attacks and tried a roundhouse which almost caught me off guard. It caught the shoulder of my jacket with a hiss.
"Hey!" I yelled. "Do you know how much this thing cost!" She ignored me and hacked at my head. I moved just in time to see her smash a cluster of pipes that exploded in billowing steam.
By this point I had analysed her style long enough to have a strategy. She also had the weakness of the leg, something I did not wish to call attention to as I avoided going all out for it, I just used that minor lack of mobility to my aid.
I noticed a high bridge across the back of the hangar so I flipped up to it and landed on both feet, deactivating my sabre. She followed, jumping high but landing stiffly. Now we were in close quarters combat, and quick movement was important. She lunged and I flipped my blade back into action, parrying and blocking. The hand rail was struck and soon the bridge was unstable.
"I must destroy you!" She hissed, rearing back for another attack."
"Why?" I panted. "Why not leave the darkness. You can make life what you want it."
"My life is over" she rasped. "And so is yours!" She lunged forwards again, power attacks flowing now one after the other but diminishing in energy as she began to tire.
I was leading the fight now, and as I parried and blocked I moved back along the bridge, headed back beyond the previous hangar towards my crew. Her motions were becoming laboured and slow, yet more dangerous as her frustration grew. I skipped back to avoid a death blow and she hit a wall console, showering sparks everywhere.
The ship was lurching one was and another which didn't help, and all around us things were either exploding or falling apart.
"Really." I said, breathing heavily. "Join us. Be free. Disappear and live the life you want, free from pain and horror."
"I can't!" She cried, another heavy blow cutting down a bridge support and making it teeter precariously. "You don't know the power, the pull of the darkness!" She dodged to avoid one of my glancing attacks.
Then we were in the hanger where the Piccalo was partly wedged, thirty or more troopers set up at one side in a battle with my crew who were all hunkered down behind some wreckage. Syd was sniping them efficiently but slowly, Mal pumping out bolts with two blasters.
"Up here!" Yelled Connie, and the troopers turned, seeing her intentions, they started to fire on me. I used my sabre to deflect their bolts, which I must admit was rather hair raising. The first time you do it, a blaster bolt hurtling towards you, a tiny slice of laser is all you have, but when that goes off in a new direction your confidence increases and it becomes easier.
What did not make it easier was her attack, another flurry of blows. Driving me back. Then I saw my opportunity.
"Mal!" I Yelled. "Now!" He looked up and gave me a salute, throwing an impulse grenade into the cluster of troops.
"Go!" He yelled, leading the crew to the Piccalo. The grenade exploded sending troopers flying in all directions, and knocking out a support on our bridge.
As we fell she attacked thrusting and swiping at my head, but I quickly parried, now fighting one handed in a fencing style. Then, just as she lined up a final attack, planning to use the force to knock away my blade and follow in with a thrust, I saw my opportunity.
With my blade I feigned high and to her left, as if to cut back down from her shoulder. But as she twisted easily to avoid this I took the hydro spanner in my left hand and threw it, embedding it in her robotic thigh.
She screamed, falling to one knee, looking up at me with hate filled eyes as I flipped backwards and landed on two feet by the ramp of the Piccalo which was just beginning to rise. Mal and Syd were on the ramp, laying down covering fire on the troops who now were firing at the ship. I used my sabre again to deflect bolts, standing on the ramp.
"Go!" Yelled Mal, and we ran up the ramp and into the ship. The last thing I saw before the door closed was Connie, standing in the opening, hair blowing in the wild winds. "Hit her!" Yelled Mal.
"You got it skip!" Replied Vray from up front. He slammed the console and we watched from the window as the destroyer was suddenly ripped apart by a line of explosions along it's hull.
"Are those..." I paused. "Mining charges?" Mal nodded, smiling.
"Yeah we've been collecting them!" He was far to pleased with himself. "And it's not as if you just waltz off a Star Destroyer!"
"We're not out of this yet!" Called Ceaz, pointing to a swarm of fighters coming our way. The destroyer was now just a fireball but that wouldn't stop the TIEs coming at us.
"Program a course!" Mal barked at Vray. "You co-pilot" He pointed at me to sit. "Syd and I will man the guns." With that he ran off followed by Syd who seemed excited to get to shoot things.
"What the hell man, I thought you would just leave me!" I said to Ceaz as I jumped into the co-pilot seat and started punching buttons.
"How could we leave you with that?" He asked, concentrating on zipping around the incoming fighters. "You're part of the family now brother." He looked over and smiled, then hollered over his shoulder. "Vray how long on that course?"
"Where do you want to go?" Yelled Vray, full panic mode.
"Anyplace that isn't here!" Shouted Ceaz, weaving and zipping.
"Ok, got it!" Said Vray, calming himself.
"Ready?" I asked. A beat, two. Then four TIEs appeared in our view-screen, bearing down on us, ready for the kill."
"Go!" Yelled Vray and I hit the lever. The TIEs were gone, the stars blurred into the welcome vortex of hyperspace.
Mal and Syd appeared in the cockpit. "Nice work." Mal said. "Where are we headed?"
"Quiberion sector. No idea whats there but it's far enough away." Panted Vray.
We moved back into the ready room and they surrounded me. "You ok?" Asked Vray.
"Yeah I'm good." I said, feeling like a physical wreck. "She was one angry woman."
"You men make us that way." Said Syd with a smile.
"You know you're repairing the ship." Said Mal with a broad grin.
"Who in their right mind attacks a destroyer with mining charges?" I asked
"Well the operation was done." Said Ceaz. "They bombed the farm, we were damn lucky to get out."
"I never told them." I said, holding out my hands.
"Yeah we know." Said Mal. "It was Yer. That son of a bitch went postal and tried to burn it all down. We just know they never found the fake shipments so those bastards will struggle to shoot straight for some time."
"Wanna make it even harder for them?" I asked. They all looked at me quizzically, so I went to a cupboard in the kitchenette and pulled out a small fob. "This is the self destruct for the angels kiss." I said.
"You parked it in a venerable spot of the mine, didn't you?" Asked Mal. I nodded. "You sure you want to lose her?"
"I want her gone." I said. "She represents a different me. A me nobody would have fought to rescue."
"Do it." Said Ceaz. Mal nodded, Vray gave me a thumbs up and Syd put a hand on my shoulder. I squeezed the trigger on the fob and a small red light flashed several times. Then it beeped, long and loud before all the lights came on, then it fell silent.
"No more mine?" Asked Vray.
"No more mine." I replied.
"We need a new home." Said Mal softly, hand on Ceaz back. "Sorry we destroyed your family farm."
"It wasn't really a farm anymore, was it?" He replied smiling. "And I always wanted to move somewhere different.
Just then TT-19 started to warble. "Incoming message." I said, so we crowded round the projection table. "Put it up buddy." He beeped and whistled then a hologram of a woman appeared. A woman in white robes, beautiful yet sad.
"Mon Mothma" whispered Mal.
"This is a message to all rebel cells that have the ability to help. We need your support. There is a mission on an Imperial facility on Scarif, and immediate air support is required." She paused which only allowed the gravitas of her message to sink in further. "This day could mark the true beginning of the rebellion, and we ask you to put all available ships and guns on the line. Some of you may not make it out of the battle, but know this, every sacrifice will be for the greater good of bringing down the Empire and preventing further horrors. Thank you, and god speed. May the force be with you."
We looked at each other for a long moment as the hologram faded away. All faces were serious. Mal, of course, spoke first.
"Set a course for Scarif. Syd and I will man the guns." We all went to our posts. As I sat in the copilot seat I looked over at Ceaz who was just pulling us out of hyperspace.
"Don't worry buddy." I said. "We're a family."
Vray gave the nod and I pulled the lever setting us on a hyperspace route to Scarif. Today we would become part of something bigger.
Final Diary log entry
Hunter, B
Technician
Sabre Squad
And there we have it. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Personally I found it to be very enjoyable to write. Any critique is always appreciated, and if anyone would like to beta read for me, then please let me know as it would help with those silly spelling errors and potential continuity blunders.
Anyway, I guess the next thing I write will be more Twilight for wifey, but I fully intend to come back to this timeline (Provided its even something people want to read.)
And so I say a big thank you, and hopefully you can check my other stuff.
Over and Out!