Author's Note: Who else forgot about Lux Bonteri being rescued when Mara was captured? Because I sure did! Don't worry though, I won't forget him anymore, that's a plot point you just simply cannot ignore at all!
The Resolute - Atollon
3rd person POV...
While Jarik discussed the plan with a tense and disapproving Hera, the other five people involved chiming in with each other, the rest of the group awkwardly began to mingle. The main hangar was still being emptied out of all of its vehicles and ammunition, which would still take some time. The twins and Snotlout were currently murmuring to each other, mostly about Zeb, being curious and bewildered. Not very quietly though.
"It looks like a walking yak," Tuffnut comments.
"Are you sure that's a yak? Where are it's horns?" Ruffnut asks in confusion.
"Muttonheads. That's not a yak: it has purple fur," Snotlout scoffs.
Zeb has a dry expression on his face, flickers of extreme annoyance and anger crossing him every time a word comes out of their mouth. Ezra is trying to hold in his laughter, while Sabine is just giving the twins and Snotlout a weird look, her lip curled up in distaste. As for the Berkians, Hiccup has a hand over his face to try and hide her embarrassment, Fishlegs is glancing between them nervously while also looking around at the Ghost Crew and the cruiser's hangar with awe and curious eyes, and Astrid and Calder both share the same irritated expression.
Rylla and Elita both share a look with each other, amused and exasperated at the same time. They both understand now why Jarik and Mara called them imbeciles. Politely of course, but no less true.
"You think that purple, walking yak also has yak milk?" Tuffnut asks.
"I CAN HEAR YOU!" Zeb finally snaps, growling at them angrily.
Chopper rumbles in laughter at Zeb's reaction, and the twins and Snotlout jump in response to the shout, momentarily frightened.
"What? It's just an honest question!" Tuffnut defends himself.
"So, do you?" Ruffnut asks.
"Oh gods..." Hiccup groans in exasperation.
"Are they actually serious?" Ezra whispers to Sabine, who shrugs with a disgruntled look.
"I think that's normal behavior for them. Jarik described those three, especially the two twins, as morons," Rylla informs them, leaning over.
"Oh, it's definitely normal behavior," Hiccup sighs in confirmation.
"Honestly, I'm surprised they aren't doing more right now," Astrid admits warily.
They glance over to see the twins getting into another argument once again, starting to roll around on the ground and pummel each other while Barf and Belch just watch, growling with curiosity. Snotlout groans and starts walking away while shaking his head, moving back over to Hookfang, who growls at him.
"Huh. Kind of reminds me of Zeb and Ezra," Sabine comments with a wry grin.
"Hey!" the two mentioned rebels exclaim in protest.
"What, with the fighting? Or the arguments?" Astrid asks knowingly.
"Both," she answers with a smirk.
"We don't fight... that much," Zeb murmurs to Ezra.
"Not anymore... we're pretty chill, yeah we're cool," he murmurs back.
"Did you just suddenly find a new friend?" Hiccup asks Astrid with a raised eyebrow. "Should I be worried?"
"Maybe," Astrid shrugs in response.
"I think Jarik did mention that you two would make great friends," Elita interrupts.
"Really?" Sabine asks.
"Well, you both enjoy being warriors," she shrugs.
"Huh," Astrid comments, eyeing Sabine with new interest.
*:*:*
Another ship comes into the hangar of the Resolute for a landing, and Rylla walks over to greet its occupant upon recognizing it. It's her's and Hayden's ship, the 'Endeavor.' The ramp lowers down to allow Hayden to walk out, although Rylla does a double-take when she sees Lux Bonteri accompanying him.
"Hey Ryl-Ryl," Hayden greets with a grin.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Rylla replies with a light glare.
"I don't know, wasn't paying attention," he replies carelessly.
She rolls her eyes before focusing on Lux, surprised to see him there.
"Lux Bonteri, right?" she asks.
"Yes, that's me. And you are?" he asks politely.
"Rylla Tann. I was one of Jarik's friends at the Jedi Temple," she introduces.
"It's nice to meet you Rylla," he replies with a smile, shaking her hand.
"Well, what exactly are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be recovering still?" she asks cautiously.
"I've been given a pass by the medics," he waves it off. "I heard that you're planning to go and rescue Mara. I want in."
Rylla blinks and looks over at Hayden, who raises his hands. "Don't look at me."
"Are you sure about that Lux? We'll be traveling to the Imperial Center, and you're a Senator... were anyways... You don't exactly seem like a fighter. Especially after having just come from being imprisoned by the Emperor," Rylla says, expressing her worry and doubts.
"I know what you mean, but I can handle myself well enough. I've worked with Saw's Partisans for years now as their inside man. I know how to fight," Lux reasons.
"I still don't know if Jarik would let you come. It was hard enough agreeing to let them join in," she replies, gesturing to the Vikings.
As if to prove a point, the twins were being stupid once more by investigating Zeb, causing him to growl at them.
"I understand but, I have to do this. It's my fault that Mara's in this situation in the first place," he says with urgent need.
Rylla's gaze softens with sympathy at his words, and she can see the guilt and sense of sadness in his eyes at what's occurred. Eventually she lets out a sigh and gestures to the control room with a jerk of her head.
"Alright, I'll relent. Whatever Jarik decides, I can't change his mind on it this time," she tells him.
"That's fine," Lux replies.
*:*:*
"So Mandalorian's are like warriors?" Astrid asks.
"'Like?' We are warriors," Sabine corrects her proudly. "It's a part of our culture."
"Sounds fun. I've always been more of a shield maiden myself," she shrugs casually.
Both Astrid and Sabine decided to move further away from the group and talk, instantly finding a liking to each other; Elita and Jarik were right about them being similar after all.
"That's nice to hear. What kind of fighting style do you use?" Sabine asks.
"Well, I'm the best in my generation at hand-to-hand combat, though Mara's better," Astrid mutters the last bit. "I also prefer an axe as my weapon of choice."
"An axe?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. "Well, that's new. Never heard of someone using an axe before."
"Well you better not take care to underestimate it," Astrid says proudly, hefting up her double sided axe. "This can do some good damage."
"Oh, I bet," Sabine remarks.
"Yeah, I always make sure to keep it sharp too. I never keep my whetting stone away from my axe; it's nice to keep it polished and sharp," she comments, running a hand along the handle of her axe before observing Sabine's outfit. "Did you make that armor?"
"Yeah... how'd you figure that out?" she asks, a little surprised.
"It's part of our culture, right?" Astrid says knowingly.
"Ok, I really like you know. You just get the whole thing!" Sabine exclaims excitedly.
"Thanks," she replies with a smile. "What do you use in a fight?"
"Typically I just use my blaster pistols," she explains, holding out both weapons. "But if stormtroopers get to close then I'm more than happy to start wailing on them in a melee brawl."
"Sounds fun. We should spar sometime... when we're not dealing with all of this," Astrid says, gesturing around the ship.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Sabine replies with a nod. "Don't you practice with your other friends over there?"
"Not really, none of them are good enough to be too much of a challenge," she sighs in response. "Though Hiccup gave it a try once, didn't do half bad at first."
"Is he the skinny one?" Sabine asks.
"Yeah. Not really a fighter at all to be honest, but he's really quick and clever. He's the smartest out of all of us, and I'd say the most brave as well," Astrid says a bit fondly.
"What makes you say that?" she asks.
"He helped us realize that dragons aren't our enemies," she explains, and Stormfly comes walking over. Sabine takes a hesitant step back but otherwise doesn't react, trusting that they're tame.
"Not your enemies?" Sabine notices, a little confused.
"Yeah, we weren't always friends with dragons. Not even two years ago we were sworn enemies!" Astrid explains.
"So... what changed that?" she asks curiously.
"Hiccup did. He shot down a Night Fury, one of the most dangerous dragon species ever, using one of his own contraptions. But instead of killing him... he went against everything we were taught and freed him, and became friends with him. Named him Toothless, ironically enough," Astrid says with a snort.
Sabine smiles in amusement and looks over where Hiccup was with his dragon, Toothless. From a several second glance she could already tell the two were close, in how he was treating Toothless and how happy and excited Toothless was responding.
"Basically, he showed us how dragons aren't monstrous beasts, but are as capable of feeling and compassion as we are," Astrid says, stroking Stormfly's snout while the Nadder purrs affectionately. "It was hard at first, because we hated dragons with a passion. But once we were able to look past it, and realize how dumb the war against dragons was, we became friends."
Sabine falters as she watches Astrid pet Stormfly, taking in her words. The entire situation that Astrid just described sounded so much like the fued between Mandalore and the Shan legacy. As she mulls over it more, watching the Vikings interact with their dragons, and her own friends interacting with the Vikings... she starts thinking more and more about Jarik, and what she knows about him. It's true that Revan was a menace to Mandalore, but Jarik was never involved in that. He never partook in anything that made Mandalore so distraught.
Is it dumb for her to hate him simply for being a Shan, just as how it was dumb for Astrid and the Vikings to hate dragons?
Before she could talk to Astrid more, Jarik and the rest of the group in the control room walk out, moving over to everyone else. There's silence for a few moments as Jarik surveys everyone in the hangar with a grim, but determined expression.
"We're heading out now. So get yourselves ready," he announces.
Imperial Center - Core Worlds
3rd person POV...
Vice Admiral Rae Sloane has always been on the top of her game. It's why she's continued to rise through the ranks of the Empire, which she remains steadfastly loyal to. She's seen many things, and foiled several plans that would go against Imperial assets and success. She even had a hand in preventing the attempted assassination of Lord Vader and Emperor Palpatine, by her very own instructor no less: Pell Baylo. Of course, she's more than ready to hunt down enemies of the Empire, but will work with said enemies if the situation calls for dealing with a greater threat against the Empire.
This of course has earned her the respect of Grand Admiral Thrawn himself.
Unlike most officers in the Empire, Sloane respects and admires the Grand Admiral, and could care less that he's not human. He's a brilliant strategist, and the best military commander she's ever known or heard of. So to have favorability from him is what she would consider an honor.
If only she wasn't currently on Coruscant, overlooking the blockade protecting the Imperial Center. Not that she isn't against being at this position, it's just that she feels she could put her skills to better use elsewhere than overseeing the Imperial Center, when nobody would be foolish enough to attack it. Of course there's always the possibility, but the rebels are not near well enough equipped to launch an attack against them on the capital. Not even the Separatists could successfully hold their position over the planet for very long during the Clone Wars, and that assault cost them the life of Count Dooku.
"Vice Admiral, you have an incoming message from Grand Admiral Thrawn," a Lieutenant reports.
Sloane turns around with a thoughtful frown and gives the lieutenant a nod, walking back from the bridge and towards the command center.
"Put him through Lieutenant," she orders.
When Sloane reaches the holotable in the command center, a holographic image of Thrawn appears before her.
"Vice Admiral Sloane. Just who I wished to speak to," he says calmly.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn, it's a pleasure," she greets with a respectful nod. "How may I be of assistance?"
"I've contacted you because I want you to keep the fleet surrounding the Imperial Center vigilant, and on close watch," Thrawn informs her.
"Are you expecting something to happen?" Sloane asks in confusion.
"With the capture of Mara Jade, there is a chance that Jarik Shan and the rebels may attempt a rescue mission," he explains.
"A rescue mission?" she says doubtfully. "I do not believe the rebels would be so foolish as to make a move against the Imperial capital!"
"Perhaps," Thrawn replies. "While it is very unlikely that an attack against Coruscant will occur, it is not impossible. Within the last few months, Shan's behavior has grown increasingly unpredictable, no doubt due to the loss of Ahsoka Tano. With his daughter captured, he may likely be in a wild rage."
"Even so, he could not hope to launch a successful attack against our blockade. The rebels simply don't have the resources, nor would they risk such an operation just to rescue one Jedi," she reasons.
"All the same, remain cautious. He may attempt to slip past your blockade as his ship is capable of cloaking, or he shall try through other means. He will either come alone, or he will come with the help of the Ghost Crew. I'm sure you're familiar with them?"
"Mainly the one called Kanan Jarrus," she replies.
"Then you know of their talents," he replies knowingly.
"Very well Grand Admiral. I shall increase security and awareness throughout the fleet," she says with a nod.
"Sir, we're detecting a large vessel coming out of hyperspace!" an officer suddenly exclaims.
"What kind of vessel?" she demands.
Sloane turns away from Thrawn and looks out of the window across the bridge, widening her eyes when a large cruiser emerges from hyperspace with a loud boom. The cruiser blasts out extremely close to the Ultimatum, her ship. Before she had a chance to react the cruiser was instantly gunning for her ship with the intent to ram, also firing a barrage of blue laser fire from its cannons. She stumbles as the heavy fire strikes her Star Destroyer, causing the ship to shake from the explosions.
"Sloane, what is your status?" Thrawn demands, confused.
"A Republic Star Destroyer just emerged from hyperspace!" she exclaims in response, watching the ship get closer. "They're going to ram us!"
Thrawn widens his eyes in surprise, completely stunned and bewildered by this move. Out of all of the things he would've expected Jarik Shan to do to try and rescue Mara... he never accounted for the idea of a Republic cruiser being used. They were supposed to have all been melted down! Before he can respond, the ship is shaken by another shot, and the hologram fizzles out.
"Admiral, what are your orders?!" the Lieutenant cries out.
"Open fire on that cruiser! All ships, open fire!" she cries out.
On the bridge of the Resolute, Jarik gets all of the ship's turbolasers to open fire on the Star Destroyer right in front of him, while R5 sets the engines to maximum power, intending to ram straight through it.
"Take it punks!" he shouts joyfully, caught up in the thrill of the moment.
Jarik plotted the course through hyperspace so that they came out directly in front of the Imperial blockade, as close to their ships as he could get. And since they would be caught completely by surprise, the Star Destroyers would have no time to bring up their shields and fire back before he set his plan into motion. The entire reason he's able to pull off a stunt like this is simple, and quite brilliant. After all he still remembers the Nexus Route coordinates that Master Even Piell gave him and Ahsoka all those years ago.
Well, half of them anyway, but it's still enough.
The rest of the team were inside the smaller hangar, where it was much safer than the main one. Once the ships collided, being in the main hangar would be dangerous, and near impossible to escape from.
Jarik throttles the Resolute at the Star Destroy in front of him when it begins to open fire. A hail of green laser fire starts to blast against the hull of the Resolute, but all of the forward shields were up to maximum power as well, the energon powering the reactor working overdrive to provide the power necessary. Slowly but surely, the rest of the Imperial fleet begins to respond to the Resolute's sudden appearance, firing their turbolasers at it as well. A hail of green laser fire struck the sides of it, causing massive explosions but not enough damage to stop it.
Blue laserfire was shot by the Resolute as well, all of the bolts impacting against the bridge tower of the Ultimatum, tearing it apart and destroying the shield generators before they could bring it up. And that's when the Star Destroyers collide.
Sloane watches from the bridge, hunched against the console by the viewport as the Resolute continues to draw closer. She stumbles again as another series of blasts strike against the large bridge tower, the ship's alarms blaring all the while. Despite the Ultimatum and the rest of the Imperial fleet firing on the Resolute, it still kept going, ignoring its own damage and firing against her own vessel.
'He's crazy!' she thinks to herself with wide eyes.
"Admiral, we can't stop it!" the Lieutenant cries out.
She starts thinking of every scenario she could imagine, still stunned by what Shan is doing, and how to stop him from accomplishing it. But no matter what she could think of in those few quick seconds, nothing would of worked. They're too unprepared, too shocked, and too vulnerable. Shan pulled off his attack perfectly, appearing right in front of them with his own cruiser, having gotten his turbolasers ready to fire and the forward shields up all before he emerged from hyperspace. The Ultimatum is already lost at this point: the Resolute is going to blow right through it.
"Kriff that Jedi!" she growls angrily, whipping around and pulling out a comlink. "Attention all hands, abandon ship! Get to the escape pods!"
Sloane and her officers make a run for it, heading towards the escape pods in the back. She glances back as she runs to one of the pods, and watches as the bow of the Resolute crashes into the bridge tower of the Ultimatum. The entire ship shakes violently from the impact, causing her to nearly lose her footing as she gets into the pod. Once it's full, she closes the doors and sits down, gesturing furiously to the man at the controls.
"Get us out! Go!" she yells.
The officer doesn't waste a moment, and launches their pod from the Ultimatum at record time. At the same time, a massive explosion blows outwards from the Ultimatum, causing her escape pod to be blown around violently. She and her other officers let out grunts of surprise as they try to steady themselves in the violently turning pod. Once they correct themselves, the viewport is facing the direction of the Ultimatum, and she gets a good look at the havoc caused.
The entire bridge tower is sheared off cleanly in a twisted mess of metal, and the Resolute continues onwards, it's own bridge towers smashing the Ultimatum's out of the way as it passes. Their escape pod passes through both of its towers, rumbling violently as the huge object moves by. The bow of the Resolute was completely destroyed and on fire, destruction reaching all the way up towards the lower half of the main hangar. And yet still it moves onwards, plummeting to the planet's surface far below.
The rest of the Imperial fleet is now unable to shoot properly, the Resolute being behind them. A few commanders try to compensate by angling their Destroyers around, but it's painstakingly slow.
For the first time in her career, Rae Sloane doesn't know what to think.
The Resolute plummets further down into Coruscant's atmosphere, and Jarik works with R5 to steer the cruiser in the direction of Coruscant's atmosphere.
Inside the hangar bay, everyone was tense and waiting, listening to all of the chaos that's been going on outside while Elita measured their progress, connected with the ship's bridge. Another loud series of explosions rocks the entire ship, causing them to stumble from where they all stood near the three ships.
"You never told me Jarik Shan was an insane lunatic!" Hayden tells Rylla, both of them sitting in the cockpit of their ship, the Endeavor.
"Hey, you willingly agreed to come along on this mission, knowing what would happen," she shoots back.
"I know, but still!" he retorts.
Hera and Chopper were seated in the cockpit of the Ghost, anxiously waiting for the signal to start flying out. The rest of the Ghost Crew were also waiting on the ship; when they flew out of the Resolute they'd be going straight towards the Imperial Palace be dropped off.
Chopper beeps in agitation of the entire plan, and Hera sighs in concerned agreement.
"Boy you said it Chop," she remarks. "This is crazy."
In the Knight Hawk, Lux sat in the pilot's seat waiting for the signal from Jarik; after some intense discussions and reluctance from Jarik, it was eventually decided that Lux would be piloting the Knight Hawk, helping the ariel battles along with Hera and Hayden. He wasn't the best pilot for sure, but his work with Saw Gerrera led to him having to develop enough skill in order to be an efficient pilot. Rex then walks into the cockpit, stumbling for a moment as another explosion occurs.
"So, you ready for this kid?" he asks.
"I'm not longer a kid Rex," he replies. "As for your question... I honestly don't know."
"Well, I suppose I'm not wrong in saying nobody's tried this before," he jokes.
"Yeah, well there's always a first!" Boil calls out, also entering the cockpit.
"Not even Saw could've thought of this crazy plan," Lux comments jokingly, flinching when the Resolute shakes again.
Outside of the three ships, the dragon riders all waited on their dragons, listening to the sounds of battle and screeching metal echoing through the hangar.
"Well son, this will certainly go down as our greatest achievement," Stoick comments, patting Hiccup's shoulder.
Hiccup flinches from the strong hits, but laughs nervously in response.
"Haha, yeah, sure will," he replies jokingly. "Just hope we live to talk about it."
"Come on Hiccup, where's you're optimism?" Astrid calls out from astride Stormfly.
"It's coming Astrid, don't worry!" he replies, and Toothless chortles in response. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up you dumb lizard."
Another explosion racks the hangar, causing them to flinch in response to the loud noise.
"I've always thought Jarik was the most levelheaded person we'd ever meet," Gobber remarks with wide eyes. "But this is crazy! He's more insane than any of us!"
"I LOVE IT!" Tuffnut yells excitedly. "I want to see what's going on outside! Come on! Imagine all of the chaos!"
"I know right? Why'd he have to close that stupid door anyways?!" Ruffnut complains, gesturing to the hangar door.
"So that we don't get sucked out into space?" Calder reminds them in exasperation.
"Alright, cut the chatter kids. We're about to his the ground," Elita interrupts them.
"Here we go," Stoick murmurs.
The door to the hangar bay then opens, and Jarik runs through with R5 right on his heels. The astromech droid makes a beeline for the Knight Hawk while Jarik rushes over to Zenna, who squawks in concern and anticipation.
"Brace yourselves, it's gonna be rough!" Jarik yells.
Elita and the three ships magnetically seal themselves to the floor in response, the Autobot Commander crouching low for a more firm stance. Astride their dragons, the Vikings grip their saddles tightly and ready themselves for a lot of shaking, which they were informed would happen as the cruiser slams into the ground. Gobber was with the twins again, while Stoick rode with Hiccup on Toothless. The dragons were all growling and squawking to each other in anticipation, all of them getting the feeling that something big was about to happen.
"I know it's a little to late to change it now, but are you sure that crashing into the Palace is the best way to go about this?" Elita asks Jarik.
"Yes I'm sure!" he replies.
"What about the housing districts in the Resolute's path?" she asks worriedly.
"There are none anymore, Palpatine moved everybody far away from the Palace," he reassures her. "And we're not going to hit Mara either! The prisons are below ground level!"
"This is the craziest thing ever!" Ruffnut yells.
"You've got to take us on more stunts like these J!" Tuffnut adds eagerly.
"This isn't a stunt you guys!" Astrid yells.
Jarik reaches Zenna, who quickly presses her snout against him with an anxious growl, sensing all of the chaos going on outside. He gives her a reassuring pat before climbing onto her back, sitting in the saddle.
"Don't worry Zenna, we're getting her back," Jarik murmurs reassuringly, stroking her neck.
"Brace yourselves everyone!" Elita calls out.
Inside all the three ships (the Knight Hawk, the Ghost, and the Endeavor), all of the occupants make sure they're belted into chairs or holding onto something for dear life. Rylla and Hayden are in their cockpit, Hera and Chopper are in theirs, and Lux is in the Knight Hawk's with Rex and Boil, all three of them seated, just as R5 rolled in. He and Chopper are magnetically sealed into the metal of their respective ships, so that they wouldn't go crashing around.
"Hang on guys!" Hera calls out to her crew.
Back outside in the main hangar, Jarik and the Vikings all direct their dragons to huddle up underneath the three ships for extra protection, while Elita stays crouched in between all three of them. The entire descent down the Resolute was rumbling and shaking from the stress of its descent, making it hard for the dragons to stay firm in their stances.
And then the impact happens.
Imperial City - Coruscant
The atmosphere on Coruscant was currently cloudy today, making it hard for the planet's residents to see much very high in the sky. They could however make out bright flashes from orbit visible through the clouds, as well as the distant thunder of explosions several long seconds afterwards. Not to much longer afterwards they could see a steadily growing ball of orange light breaking through the clouds, along with a constant rumble.
When the Resolute breaks through the clouds less than a mile high, shrouded in flames and smoke, all of the people gasped in shock and fear, disbelieving of what they were seeing. That shock quickly turned into fear as the fiery cruiser passed overhead, ready to crash down onto the surface. People underneath its path all screamed and covered their heads as it flew by, wherever they were, only to look back up when they found themselves unharmed. The Resolute passing by caused terribly loud noise and the sense of shaking, causing many to fall to the ground.
Luckily for the people, the Resolute wasn't headed in their direction, but instead was going straight towards the Imperial Palace, and the wide expanse of empty areas that lay around it. During the days of the Old Republic, there were plenty of housing districts and other types of city areas surrounding the Jedi Temple in a fairly close proximity. However once the Empire took over, Palpatine had all sorts of buildings moved away so that there was at least a mile between the palace, and any other structure; for security purposes.
That would now prove to be beneficial for the Resolute, as it now had no worries of destroying any building and killing innocent people caught in its path.
The Resolute crashes down onto the surface with a tremendous crash, its momentum carrying it far across the metal ground. The surface of Corusant shook like an earthquake from the massive ship, and the flaming cruiser hurtled by, smashing through everything in its path and ripping itself apart in the process. One of the bridge towers fell off in the initial impact, crumbling to pieces on the ground behind it. Loud screeches of metal and numerous explosions occurred in its wake, the Resolute still not being stopped.
When the Resolute finally reached the Imperial Palace, the crumbled and flaming bow of the cruiser crashed right through one corner of the building without any resistance, causing one of the towers to crumble apart like sand. An entire chunk of the Palace was ripped clean off as the Resolute storms through, and the massive amount of damage finally brings the destructive cruiser to a halt, ending its final voyage in a blaze of glory.
In the hand, the front half of the Resolute was totally shredded and burned into a twisted wreck of metal, while the Imperial Palace suffered completely destructive damage to at least a quarter of its structure.
The large doors of the Resolute's side hangar then opened on the starboard side, and the rescue party came flying out. The Knight Hawk, Ghost, and Endeavor all flew out in quick formation, followed by the dragons behind it. Elita sprinted for the opening of the hangar and then leaped high into the air, transforming mid fall. Once she hits the ground, the guns it an starts driving as fast as she could go, managing to catch up to the speed of the three ships above her.
The dragon riders flew hard, folowing Jarik and Zenna as he directed them towards the Imperial Palace, the three ships staying in front of them. Jarik urges Zenna forwards faster, his gaze fixed directly on the front of the Palace.
"DUDE! CHECK OUT THE DESTRUCTION!" Tuffnut yells loudly, gazing at the wreckage of the Resolute.
"I KNOW! THIS IS CHAOS ON A LEVEL I DIDN'T THINK WAS POSSIBLE!" Ruffnut adds excitedly.
"Will you two cut it out? We've got to focus!" Gobber shouts irritably.
"Gobber's right, we're in enemy territory! We don't know what's going to hit us!" Stoick booms, reminding the dragon riders to be cautious.
"Well, everything's gone to plan so far," Hiccup comments with a wry grin, and Toothless lets out a happy roar.
"Yeah, but for how long?!" Fishlegs squeaks nervously.
The Vikings were all still focused on the missions, flying after Jarik and Zenna, but despite knowing what was at stake they still couldn't help but look around at the environment with wide eyes, amazed and in disbelief at the sight. The buildings were massive, even larger than the mountains they had on Berk! There was no ocean everywhere, not a speck of nature, trees, nothing! just gray metal and industrial buildings, and massive skyscrapers bustling with life. While they observed the scene with wide eyes unable to speak, Jarik raises his arm to call the others on his comlink.
"Hera, Rylla, Lux, Elita, you all read me?" he asks.
"We read you Jarik!" Rylla replies for them.
"I need you to go ahead and blow a hole on the palace gates!" he orders.
"Copy that Jarik," Hera replies.
"What about the rest of the Empire? They won't just ignore this," Lux reminds him.
"All of you and Elita will need to hold them off while we're in there. Give me as much time as you can!" he exclaims.
"We'll do our best!" Elita replies.
"This is crazy!" Hayden shouts.
"Hah! Crazy fun!" Boil replies with a laugh.
Jarik rolls his eyes in exasperation but ends the transmission, focusing once more on the doors. They're continuing to get closer, when at long last the Empire's defense systems finally kick in. Jarik spots turbolasers scattered across the field and on the palace walls, widening his eyes once they take aim.
"Everybody watch out!" he warns the riders.
Green laserfire starts streaking through the air for them, and the dragon riders all duck out of the way with startled cries. Zenna squawks in alarm before spiraling away from another green laser blast, flapping her wings furiously.
"AHHH! What are those things?!" Snotlout screams.
"Turbolasers! Just think of them as much more explosive crossbows!" Jarik shouts back to them.
"Awesome!" Tuffnut and Ruffnut yell.
"Can we take them out?!" Stoick asks.
"Unless they're shielded, then yes! But make for the front entrance! They won't shoot on their own building!" he advises, and Zenna ducks forwards right after that.
Green laserfire continues to streak through the air as the rescue team makes for the front entrance of the Imperial Palace, ducking by turbolaser towers every so often. Hera angles the Ghost out of the way of some heavy fire, and then unleashes a quick fury of return fire, destroying one of the towers.
"They have no shields!" she reports in amazement.
"Seriously? We're right outside of the Emperor's house and they don't have proper security?!" Hayden shouts incredulously.
"They probably haven't put them up yet," Rylla suggests.
"Well it's not like they'd expect anyone's crazy enough to attack Coruscant, right?" Rex remarks.
"Until us!" Lux replies in bewilderment.
The three ships zoom around the battlefield on their way to the front entrance, shooting their cannons to take out several towers. Elita also drives by one of the towers, dodging around on her wheels as it takes aim for her. She spins around before transforming, jumping off of the ground straight towards the turret. She brings out her twin energon cannons and lets loose, destroying the turbolaser in a display of blue energon bolts, before transforming back into her vehicle mode when she hits the ground.
"Get the doors you guys!" Jarik exclaims.
"We're on it Commander!" Boil shouts in reply.
All three ships then zoom in formation, making a beeline straight for the entrance of the palace. As they zoom forwards faster than the dragons could fly, Jarik angles Zenna over to one of the towers, and gestures for her to fire. Zenna opens her mouth and expels a powerful stream of purple fire, blowing against the turbolaser with a high intensity. The extreme temperature of the fire melts the metal of the barrels like butter, leaving it incapable of expelling laser fire. Hiccup takes notice of this and then ducks away from another shot, spotting the offending tower.
"Alright bud, lets show them what you got!" Hiccup urges.
"I hope you know what you're doing son!" Stoick says anxiously, gripping Hiccup's shoulders tightly.
Hiccup flicks the tail, allowing for greater speed which Toothless takes full advantage of, zipping through the air for the tower. He narrows his eyes on it, dodging out of the way of green lasers that come soaring by.
"Now Toothless!" he urges.
Roaring in challenge, Toothless lets loose two quick plasma blasts, filling each blast with lots of firepower. The two blasts strike against the turbolaser, blowing it apart with a spectacular explosion.
"Yes it worked!" Hiccup cheers.
"Well done lad!" Stoick exclaims happily.
Imperial Palace - Coruscant
Emperor Palpatine storms into the command center of the Imperial Palace, flanked by several Royal Guards. Upon his entrance the officers and technicians at their stations all look up nervously, offering quick bows before hastily getting back to their work. Several calls and orders were being given out all at the same time as the Imperials try to get a sense of exactly what is happening.
"Commander, will you mind explaining what exactly is going on?" Sidious demands with a growl.
The commander swallows nervously, stuttering as he tries to explain what's happening.
"Y-yes my Emperor. An old Republic cruiser just came out of hyperspace and somehow... b-blew through our blockade!" he hastily explains.
"What?!" Sidious snarls in disbelief.
"They crashed it right into the Palace!" he adds.
"How could one ship have bested the entire fleet?" he demands furiously.
"They weren't even t-trying to fight us, m-my lord!" the commander stutters. "The moment they came out of hyperspace, t-they just rammed their own ship straight through Vice Admiral Sloane's Star Destroyer. She d-didn't even have a... a chance to react!"
Sidious growls lowly underneath his breath and storms forwards, getting a good look at the video monitors which are displaying the attack in progress. He narrows his eyes at the sight of several dragons flying, along with three ships and what he believes to be the pink, female Transformer. Looking at the lead dragon, he scowls upon recognizing Jarik Shan riding it, making a beeline for the front gates.
"Destroy them all!" he orders furiously.
After seeing the success of Hiccup and Jarik's attacks on the towers, the dragons riders all start to unleash their own arsenal of firepower, while also doing their best to avoid the laser fire. Astrid and Stormfly zip by one, shooting several tail spikes so they get wedged inside the gun barrels; when it tries to fire, the Nadder spikes are a lot more durable than expected, which causes the turret to implode.
The twins laugh maniacally as they spray lots of Zippleback gas around a turret. Before they could ignite it however, the gunner mistakenly fires the turret, the added firepower of the laser causing another large explosion that blows up the gas. Barf and Belch go tumbling away through the air in surprise, while Gobber and the twins desperately try to hold onto the dragon.
"Woah!" Tuffnut cries out in surprise.
"Hey! Watch it you two!" Gobber shouts at them.
"Hey, it's not my fault he blew himself up!" he protests.
"HAH! He blew himself up!" Ruffnut cackles, and Tuffnut joins in once he also realizes what happened.
"Focus you muttonheads!" Calder shouts, flying past them on Blaze.
He zooms forward with his Nightmare, also spotting Snotlout close by on Hookfang.
"Snotlout, get your butt over here and help me!" he shouts.
"Alright alright, geez!" he exclaims in reply.
Snotlout directs Hookfang to fly over with them, and they zoom towards another turbolaser, which was firing at them. Once they get close enough, both Monstrous Nightmares light themselves on fire, and also blow out large balls of flame, which they combine before sending them at the turret with a flare of their wings. The combined fire attack explodes onto the turret; not destroying it, but causing severe burn damage that leaves the gun incapacitated for the moment. Fishlegs then comes shooting by on Meatlug and drops a lava blast, which then starts to melt through the tough metal, causing further damage.
"Wow! I'm feeling really good about this!" he comments excitedly.
Another rush of green laser fire has Fishlegs shrieking in fright again, and he and Meatlug go spiraling out of the way uncontrollably, flying after Jarik once more while the riders follow them. Up ahead, the three ships made their way towards the front entrance, ducking past several gun towers and shooting down another few. Once they're within range Hera, with the Ghost in the lead, fires her torpedoes, and the other two ships quickly follow. Six torpedoes streak in the direction of the large doors, blowing them open with a large fiery explosion.
"You're all clear Jarik!" Hera calls out.
"Drop off your teams so we can head inside!" Jarik replies.
One at a time, each ship comes in to hover on the Palace steps so that they could drop off their rescue teams while the other ships provide cover. The Endeavor drops off Rylla, the Knight Hawk drops off Boil, and the Ghost drops off Kanan, Ezra and Sabine. They make a run for the open hole in the doors just as the dragons come in for a landing on the steps. Elita also arrives, transforming in a roll and getting to her feet with two energon blasters at the ready.
"I can't believe we got this far!" Ezra exclaims, still shocked.
"Well you better believe it kid!" Boil laughs.
"That was some nice flying. Can't believe you managed to hold you own," Sabine compliments Astrid and the dragon riders.
"Well, we certainly do our best," Astrid replies with a grin.
"At least the hard parts over," Snotlout comments.
"Don't be so quick to think that kid. It's getting off world that I'm worried about," Kanan disagrees.
"He's right. We need to be quick before they send in the entire fleet," Jarik states. "Or worse."
"I think they've started that already," Hiccup says warningly.
Everyone glances back, and then starts to hear a loud and constant shrieking sound filling the air. In the distance they could see a swarm of ships all shooting for the Imperial Palace, ready to go on the attack. There must have been at least a hundred of them.
"Uhhh, what are those?" Fishlegs asks nervously.
"TIE Fighters. Come on, we have to get inside now!" Jarik exclaims. Everybody runs inside the Palace as fast as they could while he looks up at Elita. "Do you think you can hold them off?"
"Don't worry Jarik. If they do manage to kill us, they'll have to have worked badly for it," Elita promises, charging up her blasters.
"Good luck," he replies with a nod.
"Please hurry it up will you?" Lux asks through the comm. "I'm a good flyer, but not THAT good!"
Jarik nudges Zenna forwards, and the Nadder sprints quickly on her two feet through the entrance to regroup with the rest of the team, ready to take on the dangers of the Imperial Palace. Meanwhile, Elita and the three ships get ready to face the might of the Imperial fleet, ready for whatever will be thrown at them.
After seeing Shan and his friends entering the front gate of his palace, Sidious barely struggles to contain his rage and disbelief. His eyes linger on the screen for a moment, contemplating what he's seen before speaking.
"Contact Admiral Thrawn immediately, and bring him here!" he orders.
"H-he's already on his way sir. He was communicating with Vice Admiral Sloane when the cruiser appeared," the commander informs him.
"Then get Vader here as well!" he shouts furiously, and the commander flinches. "I don't want any of them leaving the planet, or it will be your life on the line! Is that clear?!"
"Y-yes my lord. Right away!" the commander squeaks with quick nods.
With the threat delivered, Sidious turns away from the commander and storms out of the command center, his Royal Guards following after him. He's steaming with pure rage, disbelief, and a hint of unease. He knows exactly why Shan is here, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the reason. But the fact that he actually came to storm the Imperial Center, of all places, with Sidious HIMSELF present there, and is currently successful has completely thrown him off.
And it's made the Emperor nervous.
Mid Rim - Andromeda Galaxy
3rd person POV...
Onslaught and his team continues to search endlessly for Elita One, growing more restless by each day that passes. Lord Megatron himself has already called for an update on their progress, and needless to say he was not happy. Already on this assignment they've lost Elita not once, but twice. And for ridiculous reasons as well. Megatron warned them that if they didn't report about Elita's demise soon, he would be taking matters into his own hands.
And they would not like it when he does.
Since the warning, the Decepticon trio have been flying heedless flying through the dark voids of space in their scout vessel, searching system after system and destroying more Imperial bases along the way. The days and weeks of nothing have gotten on their nerves, making everyone more tense and restless.
"Do either of you two have any information on Elita One's whereabouts yet?" Onslaught growls.
"No, Onslaught, we don't have anything," Vortex sighs in exasperation. "We've told you this many times now."
"That's not good enough!" he replies heatedly.
"What do you want us to do then Onslaught?" Blast Off demands.
"Try and not get your worthless sparks beaten by a bunch of fragging organics, that would be a start!" he snaps, turing around to glare at him.
Blast Off growls angrily to the reminder, but says nothing, opting to avert his gaze and glare at the floor instead. Onslaught mutters angrily to himself and turns back around, working the controls of the ship and preparing for another jump through space.
"Wait, Onslaught," Vortex says.
"What is it?"
"I've found Elita One's signal again... it's moving!" he announces eagerly.
"Where?!" Onslaught asks with wide optics.
"She's just arrived on a planet that the organics call 'Coruscant,' or the 'Imperial Center,'" he reports.
"The capital of the Empire?" he questions with a troubled frown.
"Nervous of this organic Empire Onslaught?" Blast Off jeers, noticing his frown.
"I'd be more worried if I were you, considering how often you've been smashed by them," Onslaught retorts with a growl. "Why would Elita One risk going there?"
"Does it matter? We know where she is, and we can finally take her!" Vortex states.
"Very well," he comments, narrowing his red optics determinedly. "We're going to this, 'Imperial Center.'"
Wow, what a chapter! Not only did Jarik ram right through the Imperial blockade with the Resolute, the dragon riders are also doing not half bad.
Incase you're questioning how they could manage to do so well against those turbolasers, I thought it out so that it's not too unbelievable. I'd imagine the Empire is arrogant enough to think that no one would ever dare attack Coruscant (for good reason though, don't get me wrong), so you kind of have a situation similar to the Death Star. So their defenses wouldn't be completely ready if someone were to actually get down to the surface, especially with the sudden speed and chaos that Jarik's plan invoked with a Venator cruiser blowing straight through.
Of course, the Decepticons have taken notice as well... :O
(P.S. Honestly, you would not BELIEVE how hard it is to write up the interactions between Astrid and Sabine, and the Vikings and Ghost Crew.)