CHAPTER 19

The grenade was just a distraction. Furyk would run up and kill her at point blank range! Drakis stood up and leaned over a console to steady himself. With both hands on his pistol, he took aim. As Furyk came through the smoke and around the console Drakis fired eight shots and landed seven of them, including one on Furyk's facemask. Furyk returned fire without taking cover. Two shots landed, one on Drakis' left pectoral and one near his shoulder.

"Ahhh!" Drakis yelled as he fell to the deck in agony.

Dehees fired at Furyk, now only two meters away, she shot him 10 times in the torso, before he fell to the ground clutching his chest. She shot him six more times for good measure, and then ran over to Drakis. By the time she got there, she had tears in her eyes.

"Drakis, I'm so sorry. You saved my life."

There were still two commandos fighting at the entrance, (one of the injured had pulled himself up to the door and was covering Corporal Tucker's rear).

#

"Bridge, come in… bridge, Neestas, answer me! Bridge, this is Captain Neestas, come in," Neestas looked at Ensign Shek. "They must have taken the bridge!"

"Sir, we've got another problem. Our three lost commandos, they're coming here," Shek replied in a voice, which under the circumstances, seemed relatively calm.

"You mean that they are passing by here?"

"No Captain, I mean, I think that they are heading here, specifically. Probably going for the Admiral."

She walked over to a panel on the wall and pressed a button, "Is the Admirals shuttle ready to launch?"

An affirmative reply came back.

"Good, launch it. Captain, order a Star Destroyer to get into position to retrieve the Admiral's escape shuttle," Shek ordered.

Neestas did so without discussion. Blaster fire could now be heard through the two sets of doors. Shek pulled up a holo of what was going on out in the passageway. She pressed another button, to talk to the Norghi in the vestibule between Melious' office and the P-way.

"Laki, blasters won't go through their armor, you'll have to fight them hand-to-hand," Ensign Shek said.

She noticed Neestas looking at her funny.

"Well it looks like you can penetrate under their arms though… maybe," she added in a voice that sounded artificially less confident.

Neestas was still looking at her funny.

"What, somebody had to take charge."

Neestas smiled, nodding his head.

"Ok."

The three commandos from team 2 quickly dispensed with the stormtroopers guarding Melious' office. Corporal Hook was about to attach a charge to the door, when it opened. Hook saw a metal stock from a blaster rifle coming at him. The norghi swung it right at his chest. The impact took the wind out of him, even with his armor. The two men saw their partner fly six feet in the air, and smash into the bulkhead, before passing out.

Sergeant Jak opened fire, while his companion was tackled by another norghi. The norghi peaked out and fired several rounds at the commando. Jak tried to blast the norghi on the ground, but that norghi rolled the commando with whom he was grappling, on top of himself.

Laki, the norghi who was still in the vestibule now attacked Jak. Now both norghi and both commandos who were conscious were on the ground. It would be obvious to an observer that all were very skilled ground fighters. The second norghi, named Stal, managed to smack the commando, Private Stinger's helmet into the ground. Meanwhile, Jak and Laki were vying for position in their own match. A grenade came loose, and neither noticed. Seven seconds later Laki was blown off of Jak. Both were dead.

The explosion brought Corporal Hook back to consciousness. He saw a norghi trying to un-strap Stinger's helmet. Stinger was conscious, but hurt. Hook decided he had little time. He ran up, spraying fire on the two, figuring that Stingers armor would protect him. The norghi jumped on Hook, but Hook was easily able to throw him to the ground. The norghi had already been hit several times by Hook's blaster fire. He was dead before he hit the ground. .

"Stinger, are you ok?" Hook asked. Stinger just lay there groaning. "I'm going to get the admiral, be right back for you," Hook said.

Neestas and Shek had watched all this unfold, now they were defenseless. Neestas crouched behind Melious' desk, taking aim at the door.

"You'd better find a place to hide," he said, looking around for Ensign Shek.

She had in fact already disappeared. Watching the holo, Neestas ducked behind the desk. He saw Corporal Hook setting a charge on the door. The captain checked his blaster. His head felt hot. He felt like his chest might explode. He thought about his life, and if he had lived it well. He knew his chances against the commando were slim. Neestas was a good shot, but he knew his blaster probably wouldn't penetrate the commando's armor. He could try under the arm, but even if Shek was right, the commando would surely know this and protect his weak spot.

Neestas was upset that he had not made a move on Ensign Shek. Seeing how short life was about to be, he wished he had made his feelings known. He wished she was there next to him. The captain wondered if he would… There was a deafening explosion! Then silence. There was a cloud of smoke all around him. He saw red bolts of light silently impact the wall. The ventilation system quickly dissipated the smoke. When the line of red bolts went past the desk and to the next wall, Neestas decided it was time. Better to go down shooting, he thought.

The captain of the Exar Kun jumped up, took good aim, and fired three shots at the commando's helmet. Hook returned fire at Neestas. The Captain ducked back behind the desk. He decided to try one more time. He poked his head up and saw the commando turning to Ensign Shek. His eyes widened. He brought his blaster up, while thinking, what the dark side is she doing… There was not time to finish his thought, because what he saw next was Ensign Shek's smooth, tanned leg impact on the commando's helmet, smashing Corporal Hook against the wall. Next, she lifted her skirt and pulled out a vibroblade. Shek jumped on top of the commando, now on the couch, and stabbed him in the armpits, one first, then the other.

She had been right about their weak spot. As she was doing this, another commando, Private Stinger, came running in. Stinger turned toward Shek, and Neestas blasted his armpit. A perfect shot. Stinger went down. Within seconds Shek had unstrapped Stingers helmet, and with her vibroblade, decapitated him. Then she let him fall to the ground, a limp dead pile of flesh and armor.

Neestas came around the desk, as Shek ensured that Hook was also finished. The Captain could barely holster his blaster; his hand was shaking so much. His heart was pounding. Ensign Shek was shaken up too, but clearly not as much as he was. He saw her taking something out of her ears. Then her mouth was moving.

"What!" Neestas yelled.

Then his hearing started to come back to him.

"I said, nice shooting Captain," the Ensign replied, still catching her own breath.

Neestas took a deep breath himself, "I used to…" he breathed again. "I used to be a sniper," he said. He took another breath. "Nice fighting," he added as he walked closer to her.

She turned toward him and smiled, "I told you I'm good at a lot of things."

Neestas looked at this gorgeous woman, smiling at him. He put his foot between her feet, and found his right hand sliding around her left hip. Her right hand went around his waist and to his back, right as their lips met. He kissed her for a long time. His hands on her back, he pulled her into him. She did not resist. She pulled him even tighter, her hand having slid down his back.

After kissing for an unclear period of time, the Captain stopped, lips still locked together. His eyes opened.

She stopped, "what is it?"

"I got to get to the bridge, the ship is still under attack."

She ran around the desk and pressed a button.

"Security, Admiral's office, The Captain needs to get to the bridge."

"Negative Admiral's office, there's a vicious firefight going on outside of the bridge," was the reply from the head of security himself, Captain Stix.

Neestas walked around the desk, as Shek responded, "How long?"

"Hard to tell, at least ten minutes. I'm sending a squad up to you, they'll escort you when it's safe," Captain Stix said.

Shek hit the comm button, "No… have them meet us outside the office," she said.

"As you wish," Captain Stix responded.

She smiled, and looked at Neestas with her gorgeous blue eyes, tugging his shirt.

"So, we have 10 minutes," she said with a smile.

Neestas smiled back. With that all conversation ended. Neestas wasn't sure if the fireworks meant that he was in love, or if they were just from all the adrenaline, but he didn't care. A minute later, the Captain stopped again.

"I really got to get to the bridge," he said. "Can you help me?"

Ensign Shek grabbed one of the commando's rifles, and loaded the launcher using grenades from the other two. Suddenly she was all business again. She handed him a rifle with a few grenades left in the launcher.

"Let's go," she said.

Ten minutes later they were 100 meters from the bridge, behind several squads of storm troopers. There was a fantastic fireworks display going on. Blaster fire, the occasional explosion, smoke everywhere.

"Who's in charge here?" Neestas asked.

"I am Sir," Major Simkins, a storm trooper with no helmet on said in a loud voice.

"Major, how long till we can get on the bridge?" Neestas yelled over the gunfire.

"The last few out here will be dead in a few seconds, but there are two on the bridge shooting through the hole in the blast doors, hard to get such a small target," Simpkins yelled back.

"Do you have a rifle big enough to punch through their helmets?" the captain screamed, as the blaster fire had surprisingly picked up.

The Major put up a finger to indicate for them to wait. He went back and got one of his men, who was holding something rather large. The captain put out his hands, and the soldier handed it over. Neestas checked it out and, recognizing the rifle, he indicated his approval.

He looked over at Shek, "You wait here, I'll handle this," he said; and to his amazement, she did not argue… much.

Neestas turned the corner into the p-way where all the fighting was. He ran up about ten meters to the next good place to take cover. Just as he was about to get there a blaster bolt slammed into a stormtrooper, throwing him into the captain. Neestas got back up, not hurt too bad, and ran to his cover. He put his left knee around the corner, behind a pile of dead stormtroopers. Then he put his left elbow on his knee, steadying his aim. Now some of his body was exposed. Neestas, surprising himself, took very little time to aim and fire. The commando's helmet exploded.

#

Dehees saw the commando on the left go down, now there was only one injured rebel left on the bridge. He was on the ground, firing out the hole in the doors. Dehees and four crewmembers, some of them injured, snuck up behind him and began firing. The rebel turned and killed one of them, firing wildly. He fired a grenade that missed and exploded on the overhead (ceiling). He fired one more blaster shot, and then his head went down. The crew fired several more shots into his dead body, for good measure.

Then Dehees looked at an injured petty officer, "Who's in command, now?" she asked.

"You are ma'am," he said.

This was a shock. She froze.

"Ma'am, Ma'am," the petty officer was saying.

"What?" Dehees asked.

"You have to tell us what to do," he said.

She thought for a minute.

"Let's check the con," she said.

The ship was usually steered by a low-ranking spaceman or petty officer; however, to qualify to stand officer of the deck, she had had to learn the controls in case of an emergency. If this was not an emergency, then nothing was! Dehees was not qualified yet, but she had been studying. She rang up a back full emergency bell, which meant that the engines would go to full power in the reverse direction.

"Why is nothing happening?" she yelled in horror.

"I don't know," the petty officer responded.

The ship was still moving toward Endor. She ran over to Drakis.

"They won't answer the bell," she screamed.

Drakis lay in a puddle of blood, barely moving. He slowly turned his head toward her. He whispered so low that she had to come right up to his face to hear.

"DC Central…" he choked talking. Drakis continued in his strained voice, as a crewman continued putting pressure on his wounds.

"DC Central is down. Tell the engine rooms directly," he said coughing up some blood.

Dehees ran over and gave the engine rooms instructions directly. The ship creaked and the engines roared as it went from ahead flank to back full emergency. Collision alarms were screaming all over the bridge. Then there was a massive explosion that rocked the ship. This would be the point when someone from DC Central would announce that there had been an explosion in hangar bay 3; that is, if anyone was alive in DC Central.

Finally, an alert officer in CDC figured out what was going on and took over some of the damage control duties from up there.

"Drakis, the keel has been damaged, and keel stress is at 580," she yelled.

If the stress went too high, the ship would pull itself apart like taffy. He slowly opened his eyes and turned toward her, "that's bad," he said.

"Of course it's bad, what the hell am I supposed to do about it," she yelled back. "Damn it, help me!" she continued to holler at him.

This seemed to wake Drakis up a little bit.

"Throttle down on the engines," he said. She went to run away, but he grabbed her arm, "tell him to do it".

Dehees was puzzled.

"Petty officer nill, tell the engine rooms to reduce speed to back two thirds," she said. Then she turned back toward Drakis to find out why she shouldn't do it herself.

"Get the shields up," he said.

"What! Who gives a crap about the shields right now, they won't…" she stopped talking because Drakis had put up his hand.

He coughed reel hard, and reflexively tried to get up. He looked up at her with his blood shot eyes, and spoke.

"Surface guns."

Dehees looked confused.

"On Endor!" Drakis yelled before coughing again.

"Surface guns…" she repeated. "Oh shit… petty officer Nill! Help me get the shields up!" she yelled, running toward him.

The bridge was so massive, it wasn't just a matter of knowing how to operate the controls, one had to find them first.

"Lieutenant, CDC," the petty officer yelled.

"Right," she walked over to a console. "CDC, Bridge, get the shields up," she said.

CDC was calm and orderly, a far cry from the chaos on the bridge. The enlisted man controlling the shields from up there looked over at that TAO.

"Do it," the TAO said, without delay.

Back on the bridge, the man holding Drakis' bandages in place called Dehees, "Mam, the Lieutenant wants you," he said.

She ran over to him.

"He wants to know if the rebels have been contained," the man spoke for Drakis, who at this point was motionless, staring blankly at Dehees.

"Why?" she asked.

Drakis made an attempt to roll his eyes in frustration. Using his good hand, he made the letters "G" and "Q".

"You want us to go to General Quarters?" she asked.

"Only… if … the rebels," he struggled to finish his sentence.

"Are contained?" she asked. Drakis nodded. First, she ran back over to check the con.

"We're still moving toward Endor!" she said in a frightened voice, now losing whatever composure she had built up over the last two minutes. Three storm troopers crawled through the holes in the blast doors, and behind them was the captain. Dehees had never been happier to see her commanding officer. Neestas looked around for a split second, taking in all the carnage. Seeing that Dehees was the only officer who was still alive, he ran to her..

"What's the status?" he said, wasting no time.

"The ship's headed towards Endor, DC Central is down, hangar bay 3 is gone, and there's poison gas in the trenches," she said, quickly, trying to hit only the most important points.

Neestas addressed the ship's direction first. The ship was answering a back two-thirds bell, although it was still moving forward towards Endor.

"Our momentum, along with the planet's gravity, is too much to stop the ship," Neestas said. "Why aren't we at back full?" he asked.

"We can't captain, the keel was damaged by an explosion, the ship will pull itself apart," Dehees replied.

Neestas looked at the gauge reading the stress on the keel, "Ok, I see it," he said.

He could not pull the ship any harder in the reverse direction.

"Engine rooms, this is the captain, all ahead flank," he said, deciding that if he couldn't go backwards, that he might as well go full speed ahead. The ship's engines now reversed direction again, to push the ship forward, along came all the groans and whines from the ship's parts.

Going forward, with the planet's gravity reduced the stress on the keel. Unfortunately, it also meant that the ship was now speeding up towards its collision with the Endor moon. Dehees pressed a button. Her hand left a sweat mark on the screen. Her heart was pounding so hard that she could hardly hear anything on the bridge. It appeared that the captain had lost his mind. She said nothing though, she would not dare argue with the captain at a moment like this.

"Lieutenant, get me a crew up here," Neestas said.

"Bridge, CDC, the ship is taking fire," a voice informed.

"Come here soldier!" Neestas yelled at a stormtrooper. The soldier ran over. "Find out if the rebels are contained yet," Neestas ordered. "And get some gas masks up here," the soldier went to walk away, but then Neestas stopped him. "And have your men get the wounded to medical," he said.

"Yes Sir," the storm trooper replied, before scurrying off.

"You three, get over here," Neestas said to the three crewmembers that were still alive. "What do you do?" he asked

"Communications with freighters," one said.

"Damage control," was the next.

"Get to your station and coordinate with the CDC. Don't ask me; just do what needs to be done!" Neestas told him.

"What about you," he asked the third one.

"Fire control," a young spaceman responded.

"Great, get to your station. Have our gunners pound the rebel shields, might as well get a few pot shots in while we're here," Neestas replied.

Lt. Jarlenski crawled through the hole in the blast doors and onto the bridge. It was some sight. Bodies everywhere, shot, burned, blown to pieces. Most of the stations were not manned. There was smoke from the firefight along with poison gas in the trenches. An ensign in a skirt was instructing storm troopers to cut the molten metal on the blast doors so that they could be opened all the way. Jarlenski saw Drakis on the ground and ran over to him.

"Drakis, are you ok?" he asked, his heart pounding.

"He should be ok," a storm trooper medic said. Jarlenski didn't quite believe him.

"Jarlenski, get over here," the Captain yelled, angrily.

Captain Neestas was engrossed in the conn. Jarlenski saw why when he arrived. The ship was on a collision course with the Endor moon, and they were going forward at maximum sub-light speed.

"Engine rooms, portside engines continue to answer ahead flank, starboard engines slow to ahead one third," Neestas ordered into the comm.

He was trying to pick up speed and then turn the ship, so that he could push it just past Endor without hitting the moon.

"Jarlenski, go relieve Dehees. You're the OOD, I can't leave the conn," Neestas told him.

Jarlenski stumbled rushing over to Dehees, as the ship was rocked by the massive ground batteries. Outside of the ship, there were explosions as the rebels' surface guns punched through the ship's solid outer shell.

"Lieutenant Dehees, what's going on?" he asked.

"We're getting pounded by those guns on the surface, the last one got through our shields," she said.

"Where's our damage control team," Jarlenski asked.

"We're not at General quarters, yet. We have to be sure that the rebel commandos have been contained, so that we don't get in the way of our stormtroopers," she responded.

"It's close enough, go to battle stations," he ordered.

"Ok. How do I do that, there's no one here?" Dehees asked.

"Damn it," Jarlenski said, frustrated. He walked over to a comm station and pressed a few buttons. A whistle sounded throughout the whole ship. Then Jarlenski spoke, "General quarters, General quarters, all hands man your battle stations. Secure all hatches and air tight doors…" when he was finished with the whole spiel, he turned off the comm and looked at Dehees. "I got this," he said. "What I need up here is a crew, and make sure that those storm troopers let them through."

Dehees left. Jarlenski pressed a few buttons that released counter measures to try to draw off the fire from the rebel surface guns. It was unlikely that it would work, but there was no hurt in trying. Then he turned all his attention to damage control.

Meanwhile, Neestas was struggling to not crash the ship into the moon in front of them. He ordered all stop on the starboard (right side) engines, making every effort to turn the ship to starboard. The port (left side) engines were at full power answering an ahead flank bell. The captain was also burning up the port side thrusters trying to turn the ship, but it was only now starting to change direction.

"Portside engine rooms, bridge, can you give me anything more?" Neestas asked.

"Negative captain, she's wide open, we got nothing left," was the response from engine room 4. Similar responses came from the other engine rooms on the port side. The ship was now very close to the moon and approaching at high speed. "Starboard engines, back one third," the captain ordered, knowing he had to force this ship to turn to the right. He watched as the strain on the keel started to go up as the engine rooms answered the bell.

"Jarlenski!" the captain called, as crewmembers were starting to pour onto the bridge.

The captain had a bit of a blank stare. He was looking out the forward viewport; he didn't even look at Jarlenski as he continued to speak.

"We're going to go through the atmosphere, use the fire suppression systems to try to cool down the portside of the ship as it heats up."

"Aye captain," Jarlenski said.

He was acquiring his own blank stare as he realized that they were in a lot deeper than he had originally thought. The ship would get extremely hot, possibly melt all the way through, they could be burned to death if the ship went through the atmosphere at too high of a speed. A storm trooper came up to Captain Neestas. "Sir, the rebels have been contained. There's one holding out in DC Central, but he'll be dead soon. Problem is that he has the place rigged with charges, and I think that it's going to blow any second," the storm trooper reported.

Something told Neestas to look under his console. He looked.

He paused for a moment, his face white. "Colonel… there's a charge underneath this console," Neestas said to the stormtrooper.

"We have to clear this area immediately, Sir," the soldier replied.

"Negative colonel, that's not an option. Do you have someone who can disable it?" Neestas asked, as he continued to steer the ship.

"No captain," the storm trooper said while he radioed someone who could. "Captain, can't you steer the ship from somewhere else," the Colonel asked, showing more than a little irritation.

The colonel's rank was equal to that of Neestas, so there was no fear of being out of line. Neestas was the captain of the ship though, so he had ultimate authority underway.

"No, even if I could do it in CDC, it would take too long to get there," Neestas said.

Then he looked over at Ensign Shek, "Hey, can you do this?" he asked.

She walked over and looked at the charge. She gave him a discouraging look.

"I could try, but I wouldn't recommend it," she said.

"Captain, my guy is coming, but it will be at least 2 minutes from where he is at. Can we please evacuate the bridge?" the storm trooper pleaded.

"Listen Colonel! If I evacuate the bridge now, we're all dead. You see that big blue and green moon in front of us, we're going to crash into it before your 2 minutes is up. Now you either disable it or go find the guy who can. I'm not leaving the bridge, and I'm sorry to say that I can't evacuate my people either, even if we're going to be here when it blows," Neestas yelled.

Then he went back to steering the ship. His arms were trembling, he wasn't sure if it was from anger or from the adrenaline from everything else that was going on; probably both he figured.

"Damn it!" the Colonel said, as he took off his white helmet and dropped it on the deck.

He reached for his utility belt and began pulling out tools.

"You know how to do this?" Shek asked him.

"I was on the bomb squad for a while, but it's been years," the colonel said as he sat down on the deck.

Ensign Shek sat down too, and watched quietly.

"You think I should cut here?" he asked her.

Well, if it's a Cavolonian one, then I think that there's a second trip wire there," she said.

"You're right," the colonel said. "Damn it!"

He punched the console out of frustration.

"This is why I shouldn't be doing this!" he exclaimed.

"You got it colonel, just cut it at the top. Take your time," she said trying to encourage the riley old officer.

"Yeah, you're right. So, are you the admiral's body guard that I was hearing about?" he asked Shek, as he cut away the outside of the charge with a tiny grinding tool.

"Yes, I guess a few people know," Shek replied.

"Can you cut the neutral one for me?" he asked her as he held the casing in place.

Shek grabbed the cutters and cut the wire.

"Thank you, now hold this please," the colonel asked as he handed her the casing.

Meanwhile the ship was starting to enter the planet's atmosphere and the nose still wasn't facing up enough. Neestas felt several loud explosions outside of the ship. It was another round of turbolaser and ion cannon fire from the surface. The captain decided that the ship wasn't going to pull up much higher, and he had had enough of the surface guns. He would just have to ram the ship through the planet's atmosphere. The port engines were still at ahead flank, while the starboard engines were at back one third; to help turn the ship to starboard.

"Starboard engines, ahead two thirds," Neestas ordered, hoping the ship would not crash into the moon.

The Super Star Destroyer smashed into the planet's atmosphere, and rocketed straight through, burning red-hot. From the surface, it appeared that a massive fireball had shot across the sky. The aftershock sounded like thunder, and shattered windows and knocked down trees. Hitting the atmosphere was like hitting a brick wall. On the bridge, everyone flew forward. Neestas fell to the deck and then Shek rolled on top of him.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Yes, but I have to get back over there to get that bomb," she said.

Neestas helped her up. Things were getting really hot on the ship.

The ship came out of the atmosphere like a rock out of a slingshot, dragging burning gases with it. The entire portside of the ship was red hot. Many of the outer compartments were overheated. Alarms were ringing like crazy. The armored hull was literally melting.

"We're out of range of the rebel guns," Jarlenski yelled over the alarms.

With that danger gone, the captain gave an order, "All engines slow to ahead one third.".

A voice came through the comm, "Bridge, chief engineer, I'm shutting down all reactor plants but one; and I don't know how long that one's going to last."

"Chief, this is the captain. Try to keep that one up as long as possible, and start all the backup generators that you can," Neestas replied. Then he gave orders to the crew on the bridge.

By now the bridge had some semblance of a crew, and the ship was starting to get cooled by pumping stored liquid helium 3 into the overheated compartments. On the bridge a lot of people were looking confused as to what to do. Neestas decided that he had to get things in order.

"Alright, listen up everybody, shut down everything that we don't need. That means shields, engines, weapons… the only things that we need are damage control, fire suppression, medical needs power, a few thrusters, communication and life support," Neestas instructed the crew.

Ensign Shek bumped the captain's leg. "We got it," she said, looking up from where she was sitting on the deck.

"Good work, you two," he said.

Pak Neestas felt a rush of relief. He could feel the cool air from the vent blow past him. He started to feel lightheaded.

"Nice work to you captain," Jarlenski said, walking over to him. "You saved the ship."

Neestas took a moment, realizing what had just happened. He sat down on the metal deck.