Author's Note: Oh my gosh this is such a busy chapter... so much stuff to put in! I think this may be the longest chapter I've written in my entire series so far!
Here's to hoping I did all of the characters, Star Wars, HTTYD and Transformers, justice in regards to how they would fight in a crossover battle like this... geez this is nuts.
Tarkin's Office, Galactic City - Coruscant
3rd person POV...
Through a window in his office, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin watched the entire spectacle of an old Venator-class Republic Star Destroyer descend from orbit and crash into the Imperial Palace itself. He was shocked by such an event, having never thought anything like this to be possible; not to mention all Republic cruisers were melted down years ago! His desk then starts to beep urgently, and he rushes to answer the call.
"Yes, who is this?" he demands anxiously.
"Governor Tarkin," the voice of Thrawn greets, and his hologram pops up on the desk.
"Admiral Thrawn. Would you be so kind as to explain precisely what just happened?" Tarkin growls.
"It seems that Jarik Shan has taken steps further than we had ever imagined to ensure the rescue of his adopted daughter, Mara Jade," Thrawn explains.
"Shan is behind this?!" Tarkin asks incredulously. Then again, who else could possibly be responsible? "Where could he have possibly procured an old Republic Star Destroyer from?!"
"I'm afraid I do not know Governor. He used the cruiser to blow through the blockade, destroying Vice Admiral Sloane's cruiser in the process," he informs him.
"How could one cruiser best our entire blockade?!" he replies seethingly.
"There was no prolonged battle. Shan had the cruiser drop out of light speed directly in front of Sloane's cruiser before ramming straight through it," Thrawn corrects him, frowning. "I suspect he may have used the Nexus Route coordinates to make such a jump. As I recall he memorized half of them during the Clone Wars."
Tarkin blinks in surprise, frowning thoughtfully as he recalls the Nexus Route coordinates from all of those years ago. He scowls angrily, remembering how Shan and Tano refused to share the coordinates with the Chancellor as he did, instead choosing to give them to the Jedi.
"Perhaps, but without the other half those coordinates should've been useless!" Tarkin states in disagreement.
"Do not underestimate the skills of Jarik Shan, Governor," Thrawn warns him. "He may have found a way with his half."
"Very well Thrawn," he sighs in reluctant agreement. "If Jarik Shan is attempting to rescue his daughter, then I need all of our ships here now, including yours. We cannot allow them to escape the planet."
"I am already on route, as is Lord Vader. The Emperor contacted him once the Venator cruiser made landfall," he reports.
"Let us hope we catch these criminals quickly. They've already done enough damage to portray the Empire as weak and unprepared," Tarkin scowls irritably in response.
Imperial Palace - Coruscant
It's been a very long time since Jarik has been inside the Jedi Temple, ever since that fateful day when he recorded Obi-Wan's message and Anakin truly became the monster that is now Darth Vader, trapped inside a suit. Everything inside the now-named Imperial Palace is so much more different than he remembered, yet also so much the same. The vast entry hall was still relatively intact with massive columns stretching to the ceiling hundreds of feet high, yet now changed into something more sinister... bearing remarkable resemblance to the designs of a Sith Temple.
"This was the Jedi Temple?" Ezra remarks curiously. "I knew it was big but, not this big."
"It's so... different," Rylla murmurs, looking around.
"Darker," Kanan adds grimly. "It wasn't always like this."
He didn't need to see the change in the architecture to feel the difference: it was quite clear through the Force.
"Wow! This place is huge!" Snotlout suddenly exclaims, looking around with wide eyes.
"Yeah, bigger than your ego," Tuffnut says, cackling with Ruffnut.
"And I thought the Great Hall was big," Gobber comments.
"It's incredible..." Stoick adds softly, overtaken by the size.
"You used to live here?" Hiccup asks Jarik.
The sounds of laser fire and battle exploding just outside brought them all back to the present, and the Palace shook momentarily as a TIE Fighter crashed into the outer walls of the structure nearby.
"We're not here to gawk at this place guys, we need to keep moving," Jarik states firmly.
Jarik, Stoick and Gobber had dismounted their dragons while the rest of the Viking kids remained in their saddles. Heeding Jarik's words, they all ran down the large hallway at a quick pace, following his, Rylla's, and Kanan's lead, as all three of them knew the temple the best. It didn't take them long before the Imperial security came at them. Further down the huge hallway were dozens upon dozens of Imperial forces, the majority of which were death troopers. Not only that, but there even a few Imperial Royal Guards leading the charge as well.
"Here comes the welcoming committee!" Sabine warns them.
"Doesn't look too bad," Ezra remarks.
Along the hallway, at least a hundred more Imperial troops come out in a flanking maneuver, creating a 'U' around the rescue team. They were all comprised of stormtroopers, along with several dozen probe droids flying through the air, beeping rather loudly.
"Well that's typical," Hiccup sighs.
"Seriously?!" Ezra exclaims in disbelief.
"Way to go kid," Boil mutters sarcastically.
The rescue group is forced to come to a stop at the sight of all of those troopers, finding their path forwards cut off. Jarik scowls angrily, his eyes flickering gold at the idea of being halted from his goal when he's so close. The Imperial Royal Guards take positions at the center of the stormtrooper platoons, being the clear leaders in the defense. Jarik, Kanan and Ezra all activate their lightsabers in preparation for the fight, while those with blasters ready their weapons. The dragon riders tense up on their mounts, while the dragons themselves growl in warning, drawing themselves up to their full height or getting into defensive stances, snarling at the Imperial forces.
"I haven't seen this many people since Dagur's army," Hiccup comments.
"Well, we are in the main palace of the Empire," Astrid reminds him with a shrug.
They were both extremely anxious and uncertain about what to do in this situation, covering it up with jokes, knowing that just one hit to them from a blaster would be seriously harmful. Nearby, Fishlegs whimpers nervously and cowers at the sight of such a large range of enemies that could easily kill him, having second thoughts about this mission. Stoick and Gobber stand beside their allies, axes at the ready, shields in their other hand respectively.
"If I'm gonna be honest Stoick, I don't see what help our axes are gonna be," Gobber mutters.
"Quiet Gobber," Stoick scolds harshly, but he too shared the same reservations.
"Well, who wants to get a load of us first? Huh?!" Tuffnut shouts.
"Plenty of buckets to choose from bro!" Ruffnut replies eagerly.
"Use the columns as cover," Jarik advises quietly.
"That sounds like a good idea," Rylla replies with a quick nod, passing the word along.
Holding both lightsabers up on either side of his face, Jarik lets them cast an intimidating glow over himself before making the first move. With a yell expressing all of the anguish and fury he's been feeling about Mara being kidnapped, he runs forwards straight at the center of the Imperial line. They all open fire, and Jarik swings his lightsabers to deflect the laser bolts headed his way, sending a few of them back at the troopers. Two Royal Guards try attacking, but he grabs them with the Force and yanks them close, spinning around to slice his blades through them without a second thought.
Absolute chaos breaks loose as the ranks of stormtroopers open fire, most of them unable to shoot properly without hitting their comrades in front of them. The rebels return the fire, scoring several hits as they dash for the cover of the wide columns, just shooting wildly while Kanan and Ezra deflect fire. The dragon riders take to the air with furious flaps and then soar around the room, unleashing their own assault. The twins gleefully blow zippleback gas everywhere, Snotlout and Calder have their Nightmares unleash great bursts of fire, while Fishlegs provides supporting fire with Meatlug's lava blasts.
Hiccup and Toothless zip around the interior of the palace quite easily, having more than enough space to do so. Several bursts of red lasers come soaring their way, but they treat it no different than zipping around crossbow arrows, often times using the columns as cover. They would then retaliate with a shrieking dive and firing off plasma blasts, which would cause explosions throughout the death troopers. Astrid and Stormfly also swooped around the room, alternating between dragon fire and Nadder spikes, the latter of which were throw with pinpoint accuracy to impale several troopers.
Stoick and Gobber has taken cover behind a column with Boil and Kanan, while Ezra, Sabine and Rylla hid behind another column just next to them. Boil would lean out to fire his blaster at stormtroopers while Kanan would deflect blaster fire, sending it back at the troops. Stoick growled lowly to himself, feeling extremely anxious and irritated at the fact that he wasn't of much help in this current situation.
"This isn't going to work out for long! We need a better plan!" Sabine shouts at them from the other column.
"Yeah?! Well try telling that to him!" Gobber shouts back, gesturing to Jarik.
Jarik was within the large crowd of stormtroopers, swiping and slashing his lightsaber at anyone foolish enough to come close. He stabbed and cut and killed with intense fury, forcing his way further through the crowd of stormtroopers. Zenna was with him every step of the way, shooting large streams of purple fire at stormtroopers to burn them alive, or flinging her tail spikes to kill others.
A laser blast then struck her foot, causing her to let out a yelp of pain and stumble for a bit. Jarik retaliated almost instantly, seeking out the offending trooper in moments and then throwing his lightsaber to cut his head clean off. Luckily Zenna, like the other dragons, was large and armored enough that one single laser blast wouldn't do too much damage to her.
"He's in a mad rage!" Rylla calls out.
"I don't think we're pulling him out of that!" Boil adds, blasting another stormtrooper.
While the team had a surprising advantage at first against the stormtroopers, they were quickly losing that advantage thanks to the huge number of stormtroopers. Everyone was forced to hide behind the columns for their own protection, Ezra and Kanan struggling to keep up with their lightsabers, while the dragon riders also had to take cover or get out of the air.
The more maneuverable dragons such as Toothless and Stormfly were having less difficulty evading laser blasts, but could not attack as much. The twins now aren't as gleeful or excited about blasting stormtroopers with Barf and Belch, and we're now letting out more startled yelps of alarm as several lasers cane very close to hitting them, and they were forced to land behind a pillar. Snotlout and Calder have the same issue, as Hookfang and Blaze are the largest dragons present. When a laser shot struck Blaze in the tail, he let out a pained roar and they angled down to hide behind a column.
"This isn't going so well!" Hiccup calls out anxiously.
"What is he even doing?!" Calder yells incredulously, referring to Jarik.
He was still in the mess with Zenna, trying to force his way through the large crowd of stormtroopers. He slashed his lightsabers around, occasionally throwing one of hem though the lines of troopers, while Zenna continues her own ferocious attacks, breathing fire of batting and clawing those who got too close. Already Jarik has been shot in the arm, his left thankfully, while Zenna suffered another blaster shot to her tail. Bodies of stormtroopers were left in their wake.
"Not once has any Mandalorian ever been this crazy, and that's saying something!" Sabine shouts.
"Yeah, this is Revan crazy!" Rylla replies.
"Don't you even dare start with me!" she exclaims angrily.
Just then a well placed shot from a stormtrooper catches Sabine by surprise, slamming into her helmet. She collapses with a startled cry of pain, while the others look on in worry and alarm.
"Sabine!" Ezra exclaims in a panic, pulling her back behind the column.
"I'm fine," she groans with a wince, struggling to her feet.
"We need a better plan than this!" Stoick shouts.
"JARIK!" Rylla yells, firing another shot.
"We need to go!" Kanan shouts after her.
"I'm not abandoning Mara!" Jarik growls furiously in reply, striking down another stormtrooper.
Another laser bolt then shoots through the air to strike Boil's shoulder, and he stumbles back with a grunt of pain and annoyance. Kanan covers him while Stoick checks the soldier for a moment in concern.
"JARIK!" Kanan shouts.
"WE NEED A BETTER PLAN!" Stoick finally roars.
Jarik glances back through a red haze over his vision, taking notice of how everyone else is currently doing. Sabine was stuff and bruised, hanging behind the pillar while Rylla stayed beside her, Ezra covering them with his lightsaber. Boil shrugged off the shot, which had hit his tough shoulder armor, but was now favoring his other arm while Kanan covered them the same as Ezra. Stoick and Gobber couldn't do anything in this environment without being shot, and the dragon riders were now struggling to fight back, having been forced to the ground. A laser blast grazes Toothless on the side, and he lets out a roar before retaliating with a plasma blast at the offending stormtrooper.
Jarik takes it all in within a few seconds, his scowl only becoming deeper with his eyes still flickering with deep gold. He turns around as a Royal Guard leaps for him and stabs him through the chest, tossing him back at the stormtroopers. Finally, Jarik glances at Zenna and notices the marks where she was shot, and reluctantly makes his decision with an angry growl.
"Fine..." he mutters quietly.
Bringing his arms back, he then thrusts then outwards with a yell, using the Force to blow everyone around him back several feet; aside from Zenna of course. Stormtroopers go sprawling with startled cries, some even hitting the columns hard enough to crack bones.
"Come on Zenna!" he says.
Jarik throws his lightsaber at a line of stormtroopers for good measure and takes off at a sprint for the others, Zenna running along behind him with a few squawks. Catching his thrown lightsaber again, he whips his blades out every so often to deflect a shot headed his way.
"What's your plan?!" Jarik shouts.
Rylla glances around quickly and then spots a corridor off to the side, the space not nearly as large as the main hall.
"Through there! They won't be able to overwhelm us!" she points out.
"Then let's go, now!" Kanan shouts.
"Come on gang!" Hiccup calls out to his fellow dragon riders.
As one, the group swiftly moves off in the direction of the corridor that was pointed out, the rebels firing at the stormtroopers which were now beginning to give chase. Two more Royal Guards sprint forwards, thrusting their force pikes at the closest targets: Stoick and Rylla. The force pikes glow yellow at the tips, and the two suddenly find themselves tripped off of their feet.
Stoick hits the ground with a grunt and then rolls over to see one guard jumping through the air, pike raised to stab him. Finally in a familiar element, he rolls out of way and quickly gets to his feet, swinging his axe at the Royal Guard, who moves to block it. Unprepared for his strength however the guard stumbles, and Stoick takes the opportunity to smack his force like from his hands and then delivers a swift punch to the head that knocks the guard out cold.
Rylla also rolls away from her attacker, shooting her blaster as she gets to her feet. The guard swings his force pike around to deflect her shots, stomping closer. Scowling, Rylla thrusts her arm out with the intent to use a Force push. The guard stumbles momentarily, but only for a few steps, as his armor helps resist Force users. Just as he's about to attack again however, a lightsaber spins past Rylla's head and slices cleanly through the guard's neck, and he tumbled to the ground. Rylla looks around in bewilderment, seeing the lightsaber caught by Jarik.
"You almost took my head off!" she exclaims incredulously.
"No I didn't," he retorts irritably, continuing in his way.
Rylla and Stoick follow after him, entering the smaller corridor as the stormtroopers continue to give chase.
Outside of the palace the ariel firefight was only becoming more intense, the rebel pilots using every ounce of skill in their arsenal to survive and take on the continually growing numbers of TIE Fighters. Aboard the Knight Hawk, Lux was flying in overdrive, doing his best to weave around TIE's while Rex shot them down with the ship's swiveling turret. Hera and Hayden were having a much better time than Lux, being experienced pilots themselves, but it was by no means easy, not by a long shot. Zeb fired the Ghost's own turret in every which way while Hera flew, and Hayden used the guns of the Endeavor to shoot down fighters in his path.
"Getting busier back here!" Zeb calls out over the comlink.
"No kidding Zeb," Rex grunts, blowing another TIE out of the sky.
"Once again, I have to ask why in the universe did I agree to this?!" Hayden exclaims.
"No point complaining now, we just have to deal with it!" Hera retorts.
She winces as she swivels the Ghost out of the way of a pack of TIE Fighters, banking around and having Chopper fire the nose guns while Zeb shot from his turret, destroying the TIE's with a barrage of red lasers in a glorious explosion.
"I'd say you have less reason to complain than I do Hayden," Lux says over the com, flying around one of the towers of the palace.
"Yeah, 'cause you're just a 'senator' huh?" he replies snarkily.
"Not anymore, remember?!" he shoots back.
"Guys, focus! This is no time for messing around!" Hera scolds them.
Down on the ground, Elita had continuously changed positions throughout the fight, moving all around the palace and climbing onto different walls and ledges for better positioning. She fires her twin energon blasters with pinpoint accuracy, taking out many TIE Fighter's in quick succession. Unfortunately, more ships continue to fill in their place. Something she's noticed however is that the TIE's are reluctant to go in for a full attack on her, though she's not sure why.
"Feels just like being on Cybertron all over again!" she remarks, ducking down as a TIE Fighter goes shooting by.
"Oh is that right?" Rex asks.
"Yeah, that's exactly right! Only these guys are total slagheads compared to a Decepticon!" she replies.
"HAH!" Zeb laughs.
Hera just rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Oh I hope those guys get Mara out of there soon. This is way above my pay grade."
"Yeah, about that-" Hayden starts.
"No you're not getting paid for this!" Hera snaps.
"WHAT?!"
Elita watches a trio of TIE's soaring in her direction and narrows her optics, switching out her blasters for her wrist blades. Taking a running start, she jumps off of the palace wall as the ships fly past and grabs onto one. She quickly slices through its wing and then jumps over to the second, slashing its side as well. Finally, Elita lets go of the TIE Fighter and falls back to the wide ledge of the palace, whipping out her blasters to shoot down the final TIE Fighter. All three fighters go crashing into the side of the palace in a blaze of glory, and she lands in a crouch, looking back at the sky.
"We've got incoming guys," she reports.
Taking heed of her warning, Hera looks up further into the sky and sees a trio of Star Destroyers descending beneath the cloud layer a few miles away, most likely having come from the blockade. She mutters a curse and then calls out orders to the rest of the team.
"We've got Star Destroyers inbound. Everyone stay close to the palace!" she calls out.
"What difference does that make?!" Lux asks.
"They're not going to shoot on their own building, ESPECIALLY not the Imperial Palace itself!" Rex explains.
"Hehe, I'd like to see them do it, that'd make my day," Zeb scoffs humorously.
The Knight Hawk, Ghost, and Endeavor all loop around to fly closer to the Imperial Palace, now soaring around its walls and zooming through the towers. The TIE Fighters do their best to follow, but stay clear of getting to close incase they crash into the palace by accident. Much to Hera's relief, the Star Destroyers hold off their salvo of heavy laserfire, the turrets cooling back down lest they accidentally destroy the palace. Elita's comlink and sensors then start to beep in warning, and she checks it for a moment before widening her optics in disbelief and dread.
"Oh you've got to be fragging with me," she growls.
"What, what is it?" Hayden asks.
Up higher in the cloud layer another new ship breaks through, and then makes a beeline straight for the Imperial Palace. It looks like some sort of shuttle but on a much larger scale than normal, and blasts through several TIE Fighters in its path. A door on the side of it opens and then two Decepticons, Onslaught and Blast Off, jump out of the ship. The transform into their jet modes and shoot directly for Elita's position, ignoring the rest of the fire fight.
"Seriously? Again!?" Zeb exclaims.
"Oh I hate these guys," Rex mutters.
"I guess that's bad?" Hayden asks.
"Elita, watch out!" Hera warns urgently.
Elita whips around just in time to see Onslaught transform feet away from her and, with an angry yell, tackles her off the side of the ledge. They both go tumbling down to the steps in front of the main entrance of the palace, rolling over the stone before Elita manages to kick him off of her. They scramble to their feet, and Blast Off comes soaring by, transforming into his bipedal mode beside Onslaught.
"How nice of us to meet again Elita One," Onslaught says with a smirk.
"Wish I could say the same slaghead," she retorts.
"Honestly Autobot, what in the name of Primus are you doing here, in the middle of a firefight on the Imperial capital of all places?" Onslaught asks, a little confused and bewildered.
"None of your business Onslaught," she replies with a glare.
"Well, I suppose that's true. We don't care about your fleshbag friends anyways," he shrugs carelessly.
"Eat scrap Autobot!" Blast Off roars.
Raising his arm, he fires off a heavy rocket from his wrist directly at Elita.
To keep ahead of the pursuing stormtroopers and other Imperial troopers, everybody climbed onto the dragons so that they could soar through the large hallways, with Jarik and Zenna leading the way. Rylla and Boil rode with Jarik onboard Zenna, while the rest of the rebels rode with the other riders.
"The Detention Center should be down these next few corridors!" Jarik informs the others.
"That's great!" Boil replies.
Just then, a missile shoots by and narrowly misses them, blowing up against a column instead. The dragons 'stumble' in the air from the explosion and quickly land on the ground to regain their balance and everyone, apart from the Viking teens, quickly dismount. They look over and see a squad of death troopers approaching, one of which was reloading a rocket launcher.
"Woah, what was that thing? I want it!" Tuffnut exclaims.
"I want it first!" Ruffnut snaps.
A red lightsaber then comes spinning out of the hallway in front of them where they were going, and Jarik quickly reactivates his lightsaber to bat it away. He follows the saber's path and narrows his eyes with seething fury when the Second Sister catches it in her hands.
"You're either crazy, Shan, or you're like a lost puppy seeking for their own form of comfort," she hisses tauntingly.
The Vikings look at the Inquisitor with a hint of fear, particularly Hiccup and Astrid. Apart from those two, they've never seen an Inquisitor or someone who uses the dark side before, and are unsure of what to think. A small squad of the Second Sister's personal forces, purge troopers, comes rushing forwards to stand behind on either side of her.
"I'll show you lost, Inquisitor," Jarik growls.
The death troopers come to a halt on the corridor to their left, aiming their blasters, and then even more purge troopers come from the corridor behind them, cutting them off. Unlike the death troopers, the purge troopers don't have any blasters and instead carry electrostaffs, which crackle with purple electricity.
"Those look dangerous," Gobber mutters to Stoick.
"At least we can fight them this time," he replies firmly, readying his axe.
The most alarming thing they see however is the new figure that comes sauntering forwards to the center of the flanking group of purge troopers. The large figure is a female Dowutin, wearing black armor and a red visor, and also carrying a lightsaber: the Ninth Sister.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Boil mutters, having noticed.
"Another one?!" Sabine whispers angrily to Kanan.
"Woah, now that just looks weird," Ruffnut comments.
"Weird? More like freaky!" Snotlout exclaims.
"Poor Jarik Shan. You've lost so much, and you will continue to lose so much," Second Sister continues to taunt. "Do you really think you'll be able to leave this palace alive?"
"Oh you certainly bet we will," Ezra declares, taking a step forwards to show the trust and confidence he has in Jarik.
Jarik glances at him, losing his rage momentarily to send Ezra an appreciative look, sensing that he's trying to make up for some of the things he's said or done in the past.
"Oh you poor child. Feeling guilty are we?" Second Sister scoffs, picking up on his thoughts. "It'll pain you to hear that Mara has lost hope. She's pathetic, a weak little brat. You might as well just leave her with us, to spare yourselves the disappointment."
Jarik's eyes go wide with wild rage, and the others become angry as well. Hiccup and Astrid share a worried look with each other, but opt to glare at the Inquisitor instead. Before Jarik can lunge for her, Rylla holds him back with all of her strength.
"Jarik, we'll handle this. You need to get Mara!" she says urgently.
He glances at her momentarily, and she's taken aback at the sight of his eyes taking on a gold hue, staring with absolute rage. His eyes do revert back to blue after a moment however, and he sighs angrily. Giving the Second Sister one last scathing glare, he dashes over to Zenna and climbs onto her back, and she takes off into the air.
"Kill them!" Second Sister screams, seeing him move.
The death troopers all open fire, and the rebels and Viking scramble for cover behind the columns. Toothless shoots and plasma bolt back at them in retaliation, and then the purge troopers move forwards with their staffs. As the chaos ensues, Jarik directs Zenna to fly straight over the Second Sister and her forces to continue further down the hallway, where he knows Mara is near. The Second Sister jumps into the air and throws her lightsaber with a yell, attempting to slice Zenna apart. Jarik waves his arm to brush the lightsaber out of harms way, and they zip down the tunnel and around the corner.
"Hey!"
Second Sister whipped around at the sound of the voice, and raises her lightsaber just in time to block Kanan's strike. She scowls and him and shoves back, glaring into his sightless face. Behind him, a firefight between the rebels and death troopers ensues, while the purge troopers move in closer to try and use their electrostaffs against the Vikings and dragons.
"Kanan Jarrus," she seethes. "You and your friends will perish!"
"Not today," he retorts, shoving her away.
As they enter into a duel, the Ninth Sister activates her lightsaber and also rushes forwards with her purge troopers, growling. She makes her way towards the closest target, Fishlegs, who lets out a terrified scream when he sees her stomping towards him. Before she could strike, Stoick leaps forwards and tackles her to the ground, managing to knock her lightsaber away in the scramble. Ninth Sister throws him off of her, but he quickly gets to his feet to face her and readies his axe for a fight.
"Sorry to interrupt!" Gobber exclaims, coming to a stop on the other side of the Inquisitor with his own axe raised.
"You are odd creatures; out of your element here," Ninth Sister remarks in a low voice, glancing between them both.
"Maybe so, but we won't back down against tyrants," Stoick states firmly.
Despite his hard tone of voice, Stoick couldn't help the unease he was feeling as he stared down this... Inquisitor. He's always been used to being the largest and most buff Viking on Berk, a great warrior and leader for his tribe; and yet compared to this creature he's not as large. Only by a few inches anyways, but the Inquisitor clearly is evolved to have a bigger, tougher body mass than him.
"Very well," she growls.
Ninth Sister thrusts an arm out with the intent of retrieving her lightsaber, but it was suddenly struck by a Nadder spike midair, pinning it to the floor. She looks up in surprise to see Astrid sitting atop Stormfly, the Nadder's tail having shot out.
"Not today!" she calls out, having anticipated it.
Boy, that training with Ahsoka and Mara almost a year ago sure paid off. It was only meant for dealing with Calder, him being an Outcast and Force sensistive himself, but it still works.
Scowling angrily, Ninth Sister thrusts an arm out again and uses the Force to blow away Astrid and Stormfly, who are thrown to the ground with startled cries. Several purge trooper than make their way over, forcing them to pull their attention away from the Inquisitor. With a war cry, Stoick and Gobber then charge forwards and hold their weapons high. The Ninth Sister rolls out of the way and grabs Gobber's axe arm, shoving him down and then aiming to kick Stoick's axe away. He avoids her attack and throws a heavy punch out against her face.
A punch like that would've knocked out most Vikings, but the Ninth sister just stumbles with a pained grunt before lashing out with her own punch, and he rolls back across the ground from the hit.
Elita One backflips to avoid a heavy hit from Onslaught's sword, and sidesteps to avoid a blaster shot from Blast Off. She raises her energon blaster and fires, but the two Decepticons scatter and rush forwards in her direction. Blast Off leaps through the air and attempts to tackle her, but she evades him and sends him to the ground with a roundhouse kick. She then brings out her wrist blades and raises her arms to block Onslaught's sword attack, gritting her teeth as he forces her down.
"Tell me Elita, what is it about these organic creatures that has you so willing to help them?" he asks her.
Elita dislodges their blades and shoves him back, swinging her wrist blades around in quick slashes and kicks. Onslaught blocks a couple strikes with his sword and then ducks underneath another, coming back up to slash his sword for her head, which she blocks.
"Is it your open spark, just willing to help anyone you believe is 'in need?'" he asks, striking his sword down. "Or do you feel responsible for these pets of yours?"
She then shoves their blades to the side and brings her arm back, smacking him in the head with the back of her arm. He stumbles back with a grunt of pain as Elita's blade slices his faceplate, and she glares at him.
"For your information Onslaught, there's nothing with gaining friends in organic creatures," she retorts irritably. "We're all living you know."
"Disgusting," he scoffs. "They will only ever see us as machines."
A roar from behind has Elita whipping around to block a punch from Blast Off, but he quickly follows it up with a kick to her abdomen, sending her sprawling. Onslaught them jumps into the air and drops down with his sword, intending to stab her chest, but she quickly rolls between his legs and pops up behind him, kicking him in the back.
"Why won't you just die?!" Blast Off growls, shooting a wrist rocket.
Elita quickly ducks underneath the rocket and it goes soaring by, accidentally striking a TIE Fighter flying after the Ghost.
"Why do you always seem so enraged Blasty?" she taunts back at him.
With an enraged yell, Blast Off leaps at Elita and fires another rocket. She deftly avoids the rocket and swings her wrist blade at him, but he dodges and punches her in the helm. She stumbles backwards with a grunt of pain, and then barely manages to roll underneath his next attack. When she comes up however Onslaught is ready, slashing at her with his sword. She yelps in alarm and backpedals away from the sword, jumping several feet away to get out from in between the two Decepticons.
With her back to the entrance of the Imperial Palace, Elita switches her left arm for her energon blaster and aims it at them, keeping a wrist blade on her right arm. Blast Off and Onslaught both march towards her with their weapons raised, but her gaze is suddenly caught but something behind them. Noticing her look, Onslaught frowns and glances over his shoulder, blinking his optics in bewilderment.
A squad of TIE Fighter's come screaming down in their direction and begin an attack, shooting green lasers and also releasing proton torpedoes. All three Cybertronians yell out in a mixture of surprise and alarm, Blast Off growling with rage as the attacks hit. The force of the proton torpedoes has them all tumbling to the ground, cracking the steps of the palace with each movement.
"Frag off insects!" Blast Off roars.
He raises his arm and fires another missile, which strikes one TIE and sends it careening into the building. More TIE Fighters join in on the strafing run against the Cybertronians, forcing all three of them to temporarily forget their quarrel and either shoot down the TIE's or duck out of the way of their shots.
"A little help over here?!" Elita calls into her comlink.
"Coming around!" Hera replies.
Already though, the Decepticon scout ship being piloted by Vortex swings over to them, shooting TIE Fighter's down or plowing through them with its tougher alloy. Having heard Elita talk through her comlink, Onslaught whips over towards her and then charges forwards with a yell, taking her by surprise. He body slams her and plows her through the front entrance of the palace, breaking down more walls and columns. Elita lets out a pained cry as she's thrown down on the ground, just barely rolling out of the way of a sword strike.
"I don't care if I have to fight this entire Empire of organics, in order to rip out your spark!" he growls angrily.
"C'mon, just call Megatron already. Then Optimus will figure out where I am," she retorts through a concealed wince.
"Oh he'll get here, only to see your crushed spark," Onslaught declares.
With everyone buying him time in the heavy firefight Jarik continued on his way through the palace, leading Zenna in the proper direction. Occasionally they come across Imperial troopers, guards, and personnel. The officers they leave alone, but whenever some attacks them they're quickly cut down by a lightsaber or breath of fire. Eventually however the hallways become smaller to the point that Zenna is unable to fly properly.
Coming in for a landing, Jarik dismounts Zenna and then runs forwards, with the Nadder following behind him. He finally spots the correct door and brings an arm back, thrusting it forwards to blow it clean off its hinges with the Force. He moves inside and Zenna squeezes through the doorway after him, squawking urgently and anxiously. Jarik's breath catches as he finally comprehends that he's inside the Detention Area.
"Mara? Mara!" he calls out desperately.
Jarik runs through the hallway and stretches his senses out to the prison cells, sensing for Mara's presence.
"Answer me Mara, I'm here!" he yells.
Zenna screeches in the same desperation, stomping forwards through the corridor and whimpering. It feels like several anguished hours have past, despite being only a minute, before they both sense Mara nearby. Jarik falters with tears in his eyes, feeling a sense of complete hopeless, fear, and despair coming from her.
"Mara?!" he calls out, rushing over to where he could sense her.
Reaching the end of the hallway he turns around a corner and spots two Royal Guards in front of a doorway up ahead, who stare at him in surprise. They then get into defensive stances as he whips out his lightsaber.
Zenna rounds the corner and roars at the guards, who come charging towards them anyways. Rushing to meet them, Jarik ducks underneath a whiz of yellow energy as they attempt to capture him with the magnetic clamps of their force pikes. He flips upwards and slices his lightsaber with a yell, cutting off the head of one guard. He raises his lightsaber to block an attack from the second guard, but before he could do more Zenna rushes forwards and clamps her jaws around the guard. She shakes him around violently for a moment and crunches her jaws before throwing him against the wall with a screech.
Jarik puts off the violent display in favor of moving to the door of the prison cell. He slashes his lightsaber through the door a few times to weaken it, and then punches it apart with one strike of his prosthetic arm. The pieces go scattering around the floor and he dashes inside, while Zenna remains at the entrance and tries poking her head through with anxious squawk. Jarik comes to a halt and widens his eyes, a flurry of emotion running through him as he sees Mara hanging in the restraints of containment field.
"Mara..." he whispers.
Without a seconds hesitation, Jarik cuts through the emitter of the containment field and then catches Mara in his arms as she falls with a weak groan. He looks over her with worried eyes, greatly alarmed at how weak and beaten she seems. Already he could tell that she's gone through serious abuse and torture.
"Mara, can you hear me? Wake up, please," he says urgently.
Her eyes open up a smidgen before shutting tightly, a look of intense fear and anguish crossing her features.
"No... no... it's not real," she whimpers.
"It's me Mara, I'm here!" he insists, tears beginning to form in his eyes.
"No!" she yelps, squirming terribly and flinching away from movement to try and get away from an unseen enemy. "Stop it! You're not real! I know it's you Sidious! Stay away!"
Jarik's breath catches in horror and he chokes back a sob as he watches helplessly, and Zenna lets out a horrible wail of fear and worry.
"Mara..." he whispers.
"No... Dad's not coming... he can't have..." she whimpers, slowly falling unconscious.
Seeing her pass out, Jarik shuts his eyes tightly to block the flow of tears and emotion stemming up, the massive lump in his throat throbbing. A pit of cold, seething rage fills him as he comes to realize that Sidious most likely played mind games with her, showing her countless visions of being rescued by him, only for them all to turn out as false.
The drive to murder the Emperor in the most painful way possible has never been stronger in him before.
Shoving back down his rage and anguish, Jarik carries Mara out of the cell as fast as possible. Zenna instantly begins to nudge her with horrible whines, squawking sadly and whimpering herself.
"We've got her Zenna... we've got her," he murmurs.
Still carrying Mara in his arms, he quickly jumps onto Zenna's back and sets Mara upright, holding her against him so that she wouldn't fall off. Zenna shifts a few steps and looks behind her at them, squawking anxiously once more.
"Go Zenna, get us out of here," Jarik tells her.
With a loud roar, Zenna takes off down the hallway at a sprint and runs out of the Detention Area, taking flight the moment she has enough room to do so. Several death troopers cross their path along the way, but Zenna blasts fire at them furiously before they could react, all the while Jarik holds Mara close to him, afraid that if he let her go, she would be taken from him once again.
Kanan ducks out of the way of a horizontal slash, and then evades an overhead strike. He jabs his lightsaber forwards, but the Second Sister blocks it before twirling around with a quick strike. He deflects her attack, and the two get into a flurry of parries and strikes against each other. Ezra then jumps in with his own saber swing, but Sister backpedals away and lashes out at him, forcing him to block.
"My Master will make short work of you fools!" she hisses.
"We'll be gone before he gets here," Ezra retorts.
He and Kanan both advance and swing their lightsabers at the Second Sister, forcing her to backpedal and maneuver her lightsaber between both of them. Scowling, she activates her saber's spinning feature and swings around violently, forcing them back to avoid the wild strikes. She then jumps up high and comes down with a heavy slash on Ezra, who is forced down to his knees. Kanan then leaps to his defense and forces her to back off, prompting another duel between the three.
Across the hallway, Sabine, Boil and Rylla were the main force against the death troopers, having their own blasters to shoot back. One of the death troopers with a rocket aims it at them, but Boil reacts first and shoots the trooper down before he could fire. Peeking out from cover, Rylla then dashes over to the other side of the corridor while firing down it, taking cover behind another column.
"He better have found her already!" Sabine shouts.
"I'm sure he has," Rylla replies, flinching away from another shot.
"Then he better be hauling his kriffing behind back soon!" Boil grunts, shooting down another death trooper.
Astrid then comes forwards on Stormfly, and the Nadder flicks out her tail spikes to take down several death troopers. Some of them roll out of the way or shrug off the spikes with their shoulder armor, but others aren't as lucky and get hit in the chest or helmet, collapsing to the ground. Purge troopers then move forwards and jab their staffs up, shocking Stormfly. She screeches in pain and stumbles back, and Astrid tumbles off of her back with a startled cry while Stormfly backs away with pained squawks.
"Oh you want some?!" Astrid snaps angrily, brandishing her axe.
"We've trained to fight Jedi girl. Just surrender now," one trooper states.
"Well how about warriors?!" a voice exclaims, and the troopers look over just as Sabine rushes forwards and kicks one to the ground.
Astrid moves forwards in response with a war cry, going on the offensive with Sabine. She swings her axe at a purge trooper, who blocks her strike before jabbing out with his electrostaff. She leans out of the way and spins around to sweep him off of his feet, kicking his helmet to knock him out. Sabine rolls underneath the strike of a second purge trooper and pops up with a few quick jabs to his chest, spinning around to kick him in the head. Both teenage warriors go back to back for a moment, facing down the remaining two troopers. They give each other confident nods and then charge at their respective opponents.
The rest of the Vikings and their dragons were alternating between attacking the death troopers or the purge troopers. The dragons had the advantage of size and power over the human troops, breathing fire or smacking away opponents with their wings and claws. The twins hollered cheerfully all the while, although they learned the hard way the damage a purge troopers staff could do before being saved by Barf and Belch. Calder was facing off against one purge trooper with his sword while Blaze roars at three others and two death troopers, who barely avoid missing a stream of hot fire.
The fight between Stoick, Gobber and the Ninth Sister was at a relative stalemate, as both burly Vikings were finding themselves hard pressed to overpower the Ninth Sisters natural strength. It took all they had in order to keep her from retrieving her lightsaber, as that would give her the ultimate advantage over them.
Gobber hobbles forwards at a run and then jumps into the air, grabbing onto the Ninth Sister's back and getting his arms around her neck. She growls furiously and scrambles to pull him off while Stoick moves forwards, punching and kicking her with all of his strength. With an angry yell, Ninth sister kicks Stoick back a few feet and then quickly backs up to slam Gobber into the wall behind her, and then throws him down in front of her. Reaching her arm out yet again, her lightsaber goes flying into her grasp, and she activates it before quickly bringing it down towards Gobber.
Luckily, Stoick had gotten to his axe and threw it at her, hitting her hand and knocking her saber out of her grasp again so that it clatters harmlessly to the ground. Gobber then rolls to the side while Stoick charges forwards with a yell, jumping and then tackling her to the ground.
Stoick and the Ninth Sister go tumbling over each other, punching and kicking, before she comes out on top and punches him in the face, throwing him against a column. He grunts in pain from the hit and Gobber comes up again, attempting to swing his axe at her from behind. She senses his movement however and thrusts an arm out to blow him away with the Force. Reaching her arm out, she calls her lightsaber back to her and then holds the red blade to Stoick's neck, glaring down at him.
"Any last words?" she demands with contempt.
"I don't know, what about you?" a voice shouts.
Sensing danger, the Ninth Sister whirls around to see Hiccup and Toothless only feet away from her, the latter charging up a powerful plasma blast. Before she could react, Toothless lets the plasma blast loose, and it explodes against her brilliantly, sending her flying several feet in a charred heap, her lightsaber clattering to the ground.
Stoick and Gobber both get to their feet with a few grunts, the former looking at the Ninth Sister before switching his gaze to Hiccup, a low smile on his face.
"Thank you Hiccup," he says sincerely. "And you Toothless."
"You think that punk is dead?" Gobber asks uncertainly.
"I don't want to stick around and find out," Hiccup replies.
Toothless then perks his head up and looks over with a happy roar, and the others follow his gaze. There they could see Zenna flying towards them from down the hallway, Jarik and Mara safely on her back.
"They've got her!" Hiccup shouts joyfully.
"What?!" a few of the teens call out in surprise.
"WE'RE LEAVING!" Jarik yells loudly, and Zenna shoots a burst of fire at a group of troopers to scatter them.
"Lets move it, on the double!" Boil adds, keeping his happiness at bay in favor of staying grounded in the current situation.
As one, everybody rushes over to their dragons, or the ones that they flew in with, and take flight into the air. The purge troopers that attempted to stop them were blown away by vicious attacks from the dragons. Kanan and Ezra both separated from the Second Sister and then thrust their arms out to blow her back with the Force. She goes rolling painfully across the ground for several feet, and then slowly gets back up to see everyone flying away on the dragons.
"No... no no NO!" she shrieks furiously.
Second Sister runs forward at a sprint to try and chase them, but the dragons just fly way to fast for anyone on foot to keep up. The death troopers try and shoot them down, but it's in vain as they disappear around a corner at the end of the hall. Second Sister comes to a stop, panting, before letting out a furious scream, slashing a column with her lightsaber.
Back with the rest of the group, there wasn't much time for congratulations or cheering, as they were still deep in enemy territory and not safe yet. Jarik ushered them all through the hallways, heading back towards the front entrance as the area around them became more vast. When they finally reached the corridor leading to the massive entrance hall, he pulls Zenna to a complete stop and hovers in their air, his eyes wide in unease and anger. The other riders also pull their dragons to a stop as well.
"Why are we stopping?" Fishlegs asks meekly.
"No... not now," Jarik groans, feeling a sense of despair.
Directly ahead of them on the path to the entrance hall was known other than Emperor Palpatine, walking forwards with a cane. He was flanked by two Royal Guards on either side of him, but even from this distance the glowing yellow eyes were visible beneath his hood. Toothless and Zenna both hiss in discomfort, scratching irritably at their heads to try and stave off the sudden darkness they were feeling. For the rebels and Jedi, they were filled with dread as they remember what happened the last time they saw him.
The Vikings however were both confused, and feeling a sense of horror. They weren't sure why they felt afraid, but Stoick, Hiccup and Astrid all got the hunch of just who exactly was striding towards them without a care in the world.
"You are bold to come here, Jarik Shan, and I admit myself surprised. But no longer shall I tolerate your obtrusion to my Empire!" Palpatine declares with a furious growl.
Snotlout scoffs. "It's just a old man, lets just get out of here! I totally got this!"
"No, don't you dare!" Jarik exclaims.
"Snotlout wait!" Hiccup cries out.
Snotlout and Hookfang both zoom forwards through the air, and the latter lets out a great burst of fire, covering the floor all around the Emperor in flames, which engulfs him and his guards completely. The Royal Guards were startled and unable to do anything before they were swallowed by the fire.
"Yeah! That's how its done!" Snotlout cheers, turning around to face them.
Without warning, Hookfang is suddenly blown in their direction by an unseen force, and he roars in surprise and pain as he's thrown uncontrollably to the ground in front of the rest of the group; Snotlout shouts in alarm and fear, just barely managing to avoid any serious injury. Everybody who's unfamiliar with Darth Sidious watches with shocked and frightened eyes as he calmly walks out of the huge fire without a scratch, casting his cane aside.
"This was your best attempt to stop me? Using primitive beasts and outlandish fools?" the Emperor scoffs with a mocking laugh. "How pathetic!"
He then starts to chant in the Sith language, waving his arms around as he calls the dark side of the Force to his will. Everyone watches in shock and alarm as the fire from Hookfang startles angling over towards the Emperor, changing from red orange to a blue color, swirling behind him at his command. The Vikings of Berk are struck with fear at the sight, having never seen anything like it, or imagined it to be possible. The sense of evil vibrated around them.
Then the Emperor lets out a great yell and all of the fire, now Sidious's own blue flames, is thrust towards them and covering nearly the entire hallway, intending to burn them all alive.
HAH, I'm so evil. Cliffhanger! :O
This chapter's so long, I originally planned this all to be in one chapter along with the escape, but its just far too much stuff. Don't worry though, this 'Mara captured and rescued' arc will be finally finished in the next chapter!
I hope I did the action justice and made it believable in this sequence. I'm going based on the fact that while they are completely out of their element in such a technological place, characters like Astrid and Stoick are still very skilled in hand-to-hand combat. I hope I captured it well enough, and also didn't make out the Imperial security to seem like absolute rubbish.