CHAPTER 18
The Imp's had turned on a shield to prevent being taken by surprise, and it was a smart move.
"Turn off the shield," a storm trooper captain yelled as he watched rebel commandos come around the corner and pour into the open.
As soon as the shield was shut off, the imperials opened fire with their light cannon. The cannon had its own small shield that absorbed some of the fire from the rebels, while its gunner mowed down commandos. The storm troopers who had been up front next to the artillery piece were using heavy blaster rifles; both sides absorbed massive amounts of the firepower in the first few seconds of the fight. The rebel troops sprayed automatic fire and high explosive proton grenades at the imperials who responded with blaster and cannon fire. Within twenty seconds the cannon and its small shield had gone down; and most of the storm troopers were dead, but the rebels had taken heavy losses as well. Furthermore, there were still imperial stormtroopers poking their heads out on both sides, here and there, as far as the eye could see.
"We've got to get closer to take out the survivors, or else they'll keep us here all day. Let's move," the captain ordered.
The men got up off their stomachs and charged into incoming blaster fire from the remaining imperials and their reinforcements. Thirteen of the original 30 men charged forward, and six of those were injured. The losses were starting to pile up. The commandos ran down the p-way, picking off storm troopers as they went. Finally, the last one dropped; the rebel commandos stopped in front of a blast door, catching their breath.
"I can't go on," one injured soldier said.
Another said that he could not either.
"All right, so there are eleven of us," the captain asked, hyperventilating.
"Twelve," a man said, limping up to the group.
He had been injured by the cannon earlier.
"All right sarge…" as the captain started to speak, the blast door opened behind him. He turned to see a squad of stormtroopers behind him. All at once they turned and opened fire. The storm troopers scored several hits, and killed one of the injured commandos. Within 3 seconds all 12 storm troopers had been cut to pieces.
The captain took a breath, "which way to the bridge," he said.
"Take a left here," his sergeant replied.
#
"Lieutenant Drakis," the army officer called.
There was a lot of noise on the dimly lit bridge of the Exar Kun.
"Sir!" the army officer yelled a little louder.
Drakis hurried over, "What?" he asked.
"Sir, the rebels are about a hundred meters from the bridge. We set up two light cannon and some troops outside, but the rebels are really well equipped," the major said.
"Good," Drakis said, quickly turning away.
"Sir!" the major called in a more serious voice.
"Yes!" Drakis replied, getting impatient.
"We had three squads here," the major said pointing to a spot on the holo. "They went through with almost no trouble," he explained.
"Ok," Drakis replied.
It was clear that he wasn't getting it.
"Sir," the major said, before taking a breath so that he didn't sound so aggravated by Drakis' lack of understanding. "There are 30 of them and they took out 36 storm troopers with almost no losses! And now they're almost to the bridge!" the major exclaimed.
Now Drakis got it. He tried to remain calm while absorbing this. Dehees came up behind him, he put up his hand, indicating that he needed a moment.
"Did you send in more troops?" Drakis asked.
"Yes, we set up several squads with a light cannon, and also put up a shield half way up the passageway. The rebels blasted through, but lost about half they're team in doing so," the major replied.
"Where are they now?" Drakis asked.
"Approaching the bridge," the major said.
Drakis started to feel sick to his stomach.
"We have about a hundred men and two light cannon out there. The rebels just moved so quickly that we haven't been able to keep up," the major said.
Dehees went to walk away.
"Wait, stay here," Drakis said.
"Where's the other team," he asked the major.
"Right outside DC Central. We have them surrounded, but they might be able to get in before we get to them," the army officer explained.
Drakis looked back at Dehees, "Did you get all that?" he asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Go call the captain," he said.
She hurried to a comm station, while Drakis headed over to talk to the JOOD. When he found him, Drakis leaned in close to talk to him so that others couldn't hear him.
"Listen," he said in a low voice. "Find me everyone who has the next watch in DC Central, and have them standing by in case the guys that are on watch in there now don't survive."
The JOOD gave him a horrified look. Now it was starting to become more real.
"You'd better find a watch team for the bridge too, just in case."
The JOOD's face turned white.
"Just in case we die?" he asked, increulously.
"Yes."
He stared at Drakis for a moment, his eyes widening, then he turned and walked away, not saying a word. Drakis had no time to worry about the other officer's mental state, so he just walked away.
"Attention on the bridge," Drakis said as he walked over to a cabinet and opened it.
He pulled out a blaster, checked that it was loaded, and then turned off the safety. "Arm yourselves. Anyone who doesn't absolutely have to be at their station, find some cover and prepare to defend the bridge." Drakis managed to say this in a somewhat calm voice.
The crew was frightened. These were men who operated radar and communications equipment. Most of them hadn't fired a gun since boot camp. Suddenly a hatch in the deck opened and several people, including Drakis, turned their weapons toward it.
"Hold your fire," the major said.
The hatch was pushed all the way open and storm troopers began climbing out. Drakis helped one of them up.
"Boy, are we glad to see you guys, how many of you are there?"
"Two squads of us, Sir, and one of the ship's security," the storm trooper said.
Ships security were the men wearing black outfits with black helmets. Either way, they could fight, and that's all that mattered.
#
Three commandos had been left in hangar bay 3 to keep anyone from telling the bridge what was happening and to protect the freighters that they had come in on. By now the bridge knew what was going on and no one would have enough time to get into the freighters.
"Team 2 leader, it's Jak, we're leaving the hangar bay and coming to join you," one of the three men said as they ran out of the hangar bay.
"Negative Jak, we're cutoff. Go for a secondary target," the leader of the team two said. Team two only had five men left. They had fought their way through to the entrance to DC Central.
"Zim, Stik, you guys stay at the top of the stairs and try to hold them off," the Captain leading team 2 yelled. "Brim, cut the door open," he continued. "Once it's open, fire grenades inside and blast everyone to bits. We don't have enough time to take control, so just kill everyone and try to destroy as much stuff as possible," the Captain ordered.
Brim pulled out his heavy light-rod, and began cutting. Meanwhile, the three commandos leaving hangar bay 3 were looking at the list of secondary targets.
"Here's one, the Admiral's office and flag mess aren't too far away," Sergeant Jak said. "Let's take him out," one of the other two men said.
#
"Admiral, procedures say that any time that there is a takeover attempt, that we must take you to your emergency shuttle," a storm trooper guard said.
"Ok. Would you care to join me Captain?" Melious asked casually.
"No, I have to stay in contact with the bridge. Besides, I can't leave my ship," Neestas replied.
"Very well, I'll probably be seeing you in ten minutes," Melious replied, not showing any concern.
"Ensign, you should probably find a safe place," Neestas said to Shek.
She looked around at the metal bulkheads and doors.
"This place seems as safe as any."
Neestas was standing behind Melious' desk, using the Admiral's terminal to monitor the situation.
He looked up, "fair enough."
He stared a little longer at Ensign Shek. She had nice, toned legs. Neestas hadn't noticed that before, she must workout; he thought. Hips were just right, waist very trim. She began walking over to him; it seemed as if she was walking in slow motion. She came around the desk and walked up to him.
"Is there anything I can help you with Captain?"
'Right, the ship,' Neestas thought, as he was snapped back into reality.
"Uh… there were a few commandos in hangar bay 3, look through the security cameras and see if you can find them," he said, looking at his own screen.
She looked down at one of the terminals on Melious' desk, and began pushing buttons.
"Do you know how to use…" Neestas stopped his question, seeing that Ensign Shek clearly did know how to use the ship's security system.
A voice came through the comm "Captain Neestas, bridge, one of the rebel commando teams is almost to the bridge. Drakis… the officer of the deck, thinks that there is some danger that they might actually get through," Lt. Dehees finished.
"Aren't there troops guarding the bridge?" Neestas asked in response.
He could have checked from his terminal. The problem was that the terminal could do so many things, that it was almost impossible to use. So the captain decided it was easier just to ask.
"Sir, there are but…" Lt. Dehees on the bridge was beginning to answer.
While she was doing that, Ensign Shek, in the office with Neestas, showed that she was clearly very proficient with the ship's consoles; and pulled up a holo of the entrance to the bridge.
"These men are well equipped and have already killed dozens of storm troopers. We have three squads on the bridge right now…" Lt. Dehees was trying to answer.
"Ok, where's the OOD?" Neestas cut her off, trying to save time.
"Do you want to speak with him, Sir?"
"Yes, if he's not too busy."
"I'll go see, Sir," was the response, then the comm. was silent.
"You're pretty good with that thing, aren't you?" Neestas asked, looking at Shek.
"I'm good at a lot of things," Ensign Shek said.
Neestas smiled, not sure what else to do. Her expressions were so well balanced, that it froze him like a batter who doesn't know whether the pitch is a ball or a strike.
#
Commando team 1 was rapidly approaching the bridge.
"Corporal, what do you see?"
The corporal turned his head around the corner and watched as his helmet computer counted 103 men, and two small pieces of artillery. "Looks like about two platoons and two light cannon."
"You, you, and you, two grenades each, everyone else just use your blasters. We won't charge this one, like we did last time. I'll give the order when to move, I want to make sure that they don't have a shield this time."
"Sir, what do we do if they have a shield and they don't lower it? Do you want me to use the bantha gun?" a private asked.
"No, if they keep their shield up, then we'll advance behind it in two-by-two formation," Captain Lan instructed, as he looked at his men.
They had been running most of the way since they had left the hangar bay. No one was panting however; his men were in excellent physical condition. This was their final push; the bridge was a little more than a hundred meters away. Captain Lan wanted to make sure he did this right.
"Listen; if they have a shield, and we advance behind it, I want you guys to fire sporadically; so that we know when it goes down. If it goes down, drop to the ground and open fire, we'll be behind you with our grenade launchers pointed dead at them," Lan explained to the two men who would go first. "The rest of you, take good aim, we don't want to hit Sik and Lashak with our grenades. Is everyone clear?"
All responded in the affirmative.
"Let's go!"
Six men ran out into the passageway. They took aim, waited a second for each other to get a good line on the enemy, then they fired. Four were on the ground, and one on each side taking cover behind the bulkhead (wall). Three men and the captain fired grenades, the other two just fired blaster shots. The proton grenades and automatic blaster fired sailed all the way down the p-way to the blast doors protecting the bridge. No shield was up this time.
The walls exploded all around them as blaster and cannon fire came back up the p-way. The Imperials had zeroed their cannons in on the ground at the point from which they had expected the rebels to attack from; and they had guessed right. The four commandos on the ground were blown to pieces before they could take out the enemy guns. More men fired grenades, and they took out one of the cannons and cleared away dozens of storm troopers. Unfortunately, one gun was still functioning, and more troops were moving into view to replace the dead and injured ones.
Lan on one side, and Corporal Senn on the other, continued to fire. Corporal Senn, seeing that they had only gotten one cannon, took aim and fired five more grenades down the p-way, before the wall in front of him exploded from enemy fire. He was down, but he got the cannon. Captain Lan needed to act quickly. He considered ordering another man to the other side of the p-way, to replace Senn, then thought better of it. The Imperials were laying down a heavy suppressing fire.
"Sergeant Milford, get the lightsaber on a tripod," Lan instructed.
The light saber was a very heavy automatic blaster. In the open field, it would cut through infantry as easily as the Jedi weapon for which it was named. Sergeant Milford did as he was told. Lan was backed away from the corner by the heavy fire coming from the Imperials. Corporal Tucker had what looked like a 4-inch pipe slung over his shoulder.
"Corporal, you think you could hit those blast doors from here with the bantha gun?" Lan asked.
"Yes Sir," the corporal responded confidently.
"Good, the explosion should distract them for a moment so that Tucker can get out there with the light saber. Alright, you three get out there and lay down some covering fire, Tucker, take your shot. Then, Milford, you push your lightsaber out there and clean house. Then we all advance. Keep the light saber on its tripod; we'll all advance behind it. Everyone got it?" the captain asked.
Three men rolled to the ground in front of the passageway, firing blasters and the occasional grenade. Tucker came into the open, got down on one knee, and fired a shot from the massive bantha gun, causing a huge explosion behind the imperials. There was now a four-foot-wide hole in the first blast door protecting the bridge. Next, Milford pushed the bulky lightsaber out into the passageway on its tripod. Streams of red blaster bolts erupted from the light saber, at a rate of 25 per second. Sergeant Milford mowed down storm troopers, some standing, some on the ground.
Captain Lan came out into the open and fired some grenades.
"Move!" he yelled.
The seven remaining commandos advanced at a fast walk, holding rifles up to their eyes and firing all the way. Milford pushed the light saber, which had wheels on its tripod. The approaching storm was too much, the imperial troops who were still alive took cover on the sides of the passageway. One or two dared to peak out from the sides and return fire.
"Run!" Lan yelled.
They neared the bridge. They knew that the remaining 40 or 50 storm troopers were waiting for them in the large entrance room, just outside the bridge.
"Hold up here. Get your grenades ready if you have any left," Lan said.
Then he ran out ahead of his men, at a sprint. The 25 or so imperial troops on either side were at first caught off guard, but quickly began firing. He ran right between the two groups and dove to the ground right in front of the blast doors at the entrance to the bridge. In the heat of the moment, many storm troopers shot their own men on the opposite side. As Lan was flying to the ground he threw his four remaining grenades, two in each hand, at the troops on either side.
As the imperials got up to run from the grenades, Lan's men came into the opening guns ablaze. They blasted the imperials at point blank range. And as the storm troopers stopped to return fire they were blown to bits by the grenades.
Sergeant Milford was down. Corporal Tucker ran over to Captain Lan.
"Are you ok sir?" he asked.
One shot had penetrated Lan's armor on his right side, but he was still alive. He turned slowly on the ground. He looked up at Corporal Tucker.
"Cut through the second door…" he said; coughing on his own blood.
Then he continued in a strained, loud whisper, "Save the bantha gun for the second blast door behind it."
Several men broke out long torch sticks and began cutting through the second door. This was the door that would be closed on a normal day. The heavy blast doors on either side of it were only closed during emergencies. Within 30 seconds, the men had cut through the second door. Then the remaining five men moved back. Corporal Tucker got down on one knee with the monster weapon on his shoulder. He fired.
#
Drakis stood behind a high console aiming his blaster at the entrance to the bridge. All eyes were fixed on the holo of the man outside the bridge, aiming a 4-inch-thick pipe, with a trigger, at the last set of blast doors protecting the bridge.
"Get down!" Drakis yelled, as he turned and ducked behind a console.
He covered his ears, and then looked at Dehees.
"I was hoping they'd use the torches," she yelled.
"Me too; cover your ears and open your mouth so your eardrums don't burst," Drakis yelled to her.
The man in the holo pulled the trigger… The thick durasteel doors exploded. Chunks of molten metal went flying throughout the bridge. Many of the bridge crew received burns, some even killed.
A small chunk of metal, about the size of a peanut, landed on Drakis forearm, and his fire-retardant sleeve caught fire. He instinctively swatted at the fire, realizing his mistake too late.
"Ahhh!" He yelled, as his hand was burned from the small piece of metal. As the fire suppression system targeted his arm, and the fire went out, Drakis finally became aware of the automatic blaster fire and grenades being fired into the bridge.
The rebels were throwing tat-fruit grenades into the bridge, through the hole in the door, in the same way one would throw laundry into a shoot. Tat-fruits were small, one-inch diameter fruits. The grenades were the same size as the fruits for which they were named, and came in threes. The three pins were tied together, just pull the strings and throw all three. These were designed to kill men with no armor, like the crew on the bridge. Explosions and blaster fire rung out all around Drakis. The rebels were also throwing regular size proton grenades, firing grenades from launchers, and throwing smoke grenades.
Drakis picked up his blaster, turned around and peaked over his console. All he could see was smoke, with bolts of light going in and coming out of the smoke. He began firing into it. He could hear nothing, there were constant explosions everywhere. When the smoke started to clear, he saw four rebels on the ground, three of them still firing. Another rebel was standing up, firing a rather nasty weapon.
The three squads of men were getting blown up two or three at a time from the nasty gun, or picked off by the very accurate fire from the other commando's guns. One storm trooper fired three shots into the side of one of the commandos, the third one penetrating, before the storm troopers head was cut off by the heavy weapon on the tripod. He was one of the last. Resistance ended, and Drakis and Dehees took cover. The three living commandos got up and ran forward, shooting anyone who looked like they were still alive.
"Private Furyk, you take the conn, you studied more than I did," Drakis heard one of the commandos yell.
'What are they doing' he thought. Private Furyk had indeed studied the controls more than Corporal Tucker. He took control of the ship and steered it towards the Endor moon.
Meanwhile, Corporal Tucker and the other surviving commando ran along the trenches throwing tat-fruit grenades and poison gas bombs into them. The grenades would distract those who they didn't kill, so that they couldn't reach for their gas masks. Here and there a crew member who was still alive would jump out and take a shot at one of the commandos. Drakis could hear blaster fire outside of the bridge, too. The injured commandos were protecting the entrance.
Back on the bridge, a crew member threw a tat-fruit grenade back at a commando who was running along the trenches. It exploded right in front of him, and he went down, his left leg barely still attached. Now there were only two uninjured rebels left on the bridge. Corporal Tucker, having thrown all his gas bombs and grenades into the trenches, was now running back to help protect the entrance to the bridge, while private Furyk was ringing up an ahead flank bell. DC Central, also in the middle of a firefight, answered the bell without asking questions.
"Drakis," Dehees called in a loud whisper. "They're going to crash us into the moon!" she said. "There's only two left," she added, still crouching behind the main communications console.
"Your blaster won't penetrate their armor. Wait for the metal heads," Drakis replied.
Dehees gave him a dissatisfied look. Then she stood up, spun around, and began firing at Private Furyk. She was nervous, so most of her shots missed. Private Furyk ducked.
"What are you doing?!" Drakis yelled, just before Furyk fired a proton grenade at the communications console behind them.
The side of the console behind Dehees exploded. Drakis thought it a bad shot until he saw Furyk running around to get Dehees.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter. All comments are welcome.