Chapter 17
As he got into his X-Wing, Luke felt the feeling that he had felt every time he was about to go into battle. It was a mixture of excitement and fear, and he loved it. After jumping into the cockpit of the fighter, he looked back at R2, who was being lowered into his socket. It felt good to once again have his co-pilot back. He put his helmet on, and looked around to see the other members of Rogue Squadron either finishing their pre-flight prep work and closing their canopies, or already finished with the pre-flight, and ready to get to work. Luke hit the switch that would close his own canopy, and then opened a channel to the squad's private frequency. "Ok Rogues," Luke began, "for this mission we will be doing a little rearranging as far as wing men are concerned." Luke took a deep breath, and continued, "Wedge, you will fly wing with Kason, Hobby you will be with Zev, and Wes will be with Dack. And by now I guess that you have guessed that you are with me Tycho."
"Acknowledged lead." Tycho said.
Luke flipped his comm. back over to the fleet frequency, "This is Rogue Squadron, we are ready to go."
"Acknowledged Rogues," came Ackbar's voice, "you are clear to go, and May the Force be with You."
"Thanks Admiral." Luke said, and then powered up his engines, and led the other 7 fighters, and the troop transport out of the bay, and into open space.
******
Kira watched from behind the co-pilots seat, as the 8 X-wings lead the way out of Home One's hanger bay, and into open space. General Madine, who was sitting in the pilots seat activated the comm. unit, "Rogue's this is Madine."
"We read you General." Came Luke's voice over the speakers.
"Commander, this base has a massive amount of both standard Tie's and Tie Interceptors. I want 2 of you to fly cover for the shuttle at all times."
"Acknowledged General," Luke said, "my wingman and I will handle that."
******
"Very well Commander, Madine out." Madine said as the channel closed.
Almost immediately, Luke reached over, and flipped the comm. frequency to the one that the Rogue's used, "Ok Rogue's, you heard him, Tycho and I will cover the transport, while the rest of you and the A-Wings handle the Imp's or their supply of Tabana gas. Until we link back up, Wedge will be in command of the main attack."
"Acknowledged Luke." Wedge said.
"Just remember Rogue's that not all targets at Imperial, so be sure that what you are shooting at is in fact Imperial."
"Now I know what it is like to be on the other side of one of these little raids." Kasan said,
Luke smiled, and then he heard Tycho's voice, "Don't worry Kasan, I am sure that they will become second nature to us soon enough."
******
Madine entered the prep room on the transport, and almost immediately the room got quite. "We will be landing in a few minutes." Madine began, "Once we land, we will split up into two teams. Team one will be the diversionary team, which will be lead by me. Team two will be the ones that actually go after the weapons technology, and that team will be lead by Coronal Kira here." Madine indicated Kira, and then continued. "The members of her crew that have come along have already been split up between the two of us." Madine looked at Kira, "Coronal."
Kira nodded to Madine, "Odo and Lt. Worf will be part of my team, while Dr. Bashier and Ensign Nog will go with General Madine and his team. The rest of you will be divided up as we depart from the ship." Both Kira and Madine looked at all of the troops, and then turned and headed back into the cockpit.
Chapter 18
It had only taken O'Brien, Han and Chewy ten minutes to find Leia and Mom Mothma, and only another ten for them to issue the evacuation signal. Jake Sisco tried to move with the rebels rushing to the hanger with equipment of all shapes and sizes in order to get to the runabout were he would meet up with O'Brien. When he finally reached the bay, he quickly found O'Brien at the hatch to the runabout, with Princes Leia and Mom Mothma standing on either side of him, and ran up to them.
"What's going on?" He asked when he reached them.
"We have reason to believe that the Empire knows that we are here Mr. Sisco," Mom Mothma began, "and we are evacuating all personnel to our new base of operations."
"Since we have the fastest ship here, we will be taking Mom Mothma, Leia, and General Rieekan with us just in case the rest of the base is not fast enough to get out of here before the Empire arrives." O'Brien added.
Jake walked up to the entrance of the runabout, and paused there when he noticed Han Solo walk up with Rieekan on one side, and Chewbacca on the other. "The first two transports are ready to go Mom Mothma." Rieekan reported.
"Very well General." Mom Mothma said as she brought a comm. link out from under her cloak, "Control room this is Mom Mothma."
"Go ahead." The officer on duty in the control room said.
"Activate the bases comm. system so that everyone can hear me."
It took a moment or two, but the officers voice came back over, "Your on Mom Mothma."
Mom Mothma brought the comm. unit up to her mouth and spoke into it, only unlike before, this time her voice was carried by some sort of Public Address system. "Brave members of the Rebel Alliance, this is Mom Mothma." She paused as if trying to find the right words, and then continued, "As you may or may not have guessed, the Empire has found out about our base here on Ord Mantel. We will there for be moving our operation to our new base. We will be launching each transport as they are filled, and hope that you will all make it to the new base. I wish all of you the best of luck, and May the Force be with you all." Mom Mothma pulled the comm. link away from her mouth, and then went off with Leia and Rieekan to oversee the evacuation.
******
Mara Jade moved as fast as she could to her modified Tie Interceptor. As soon as she got there, she powered up the comm. system, "This is Imperial intelligence officer, code number 332102 to Emperor's Pride. I have located the Rebel base, and am requesting that all available ships come to Ord Mantel as fast as possible in order to trap them." Mara listened to the recording, and then sent it off to the Pride. It was now up to Darth Vader to stop the Rebels from escaping. She then activated the ships repulsers, and headed for space, where she would try and make it a little easier for the Emperor's Pride to attack the Rebels before they could be alerted to the SSD's presence in the system.
Chapter 19
As her group ran through the corridors of the research center, Kira began to get the old feelings that she had every time she and her Resistance Cell back on Bajor raided a Cardasian installation. Her team quickly rounded a corner, and ran right into a detachment of Storm Troopers. "Halt!" shouted one of the Troopers. Kira lowered her weapon, and everyone else followed her lead. "Alert command that we have captured several Rebels." The Trooper said to one of the other Storm Troopers in the group. That Trooper was about to follow his orders, when an ooze dripped down from above them, and took on a humanoid form behind them. Odo then turned his arms into a set of whips, and began to strike at all of the Storm Troopers, giving Kira and her team the time that they needed to pick up their weapons, and shoot all of them.
"Well done Constable." Kira said.
Odo Nodded, and pointed down a corridor, "The research lab is just down that way."
Worf then moved up to them, " We should get moving, those Storm Troopers might have alerted their superiors before we were able to take care of them."
Kira nodded to Worf, and then turned to one of the Rebel Commandos, "Lieutenant, have everyone move on ahead, but also tell them to be keep an eye open for anymore Storm Troopers."
"Yes sir." The Rebel said, as he ran over to the rest of the Rebels in the group.
*******
Luke brought his X-Wing around for another pass of the research facility, when he heard Tycho's voice over the comm., "Rogue Leader, I show several Squints headed our way."
Luke looked at his own scanner, and it showed the same thing that Tycho's did, a squadron of Tie Interceptors headed right for their position. "Ok, prepare to engage them, but try to keep them away from the research facility until our people lift off from it." Luke then turned the comm. to the squadron frequency, "Wedge, we may have a bit of a problem here," not waiting for Wedge to reply, Luke continued, "we have a squadron of Squints headed our way."
Wedge Antilles voice came over the comm., "I read you Lead, we are kind of busy with our own Eyeballs and Squints, but we will get there as soon as we can."
Luke knew that he could not expect anything more than that, "Ok, we will try to save some for you then, Skywalker out!" Luke then switched the comm. back over to the frequency to General Madine's pocket comm., "General, we have several Squints headed this way, I recommend that you finish your mission as fast as you can."
Crix Madine's voice came back over the speakers in Luke's helmet, "Ok Commander Skywalker, just hold them off the best you can, and I will be sure to pass that info onto the Coronal and her team."
Luke let out a sigh, "Acknowledged, Skywalker out." Luke looked out the veiwport, and saw that the Squints were coming in at top speed. He then switched the comm. back over to the one that he had with Tycho, "Ok Tycho, it is all up to us until the rest of the squadron gets here. Are you ready for this?"
The other pilots voice was a little uneasy when he spoke, "I have been ready for this moment ever since I heard what happened to Alderaan."
Luke nodded, and then turned off the comm.. He then looked briefly back at R2-D2, "Ok R2, lets show these Imps that they messed with the wrong people." R2 beeped in acknowledgement, and Luke increased his fighter's speed to full, with Tycho's X-Wing right behind him.
******
Kira ducked back behind a the corner, after firing off three shots with her Phaser, but unfortunately, the troops that were blocking their way to the research lab fired a lot more than three shots back at her. Worf who had taken up position across from her, pulled out a Photon Grenade out of a small bag that he had brought along, set the timer on it, and through it down the passage. Unfortunately the Imperial Troops didn't realize what it was in time, and were all caught off guard by the grenades blast. Worf then leapt out from around the corner, and charged at the Troops with his Phaser Rifle firing all of the way.
"Move in!" Kira shouted over the sound of the Phaser Rifle, and as she moved out from around the corner, a Trooper that was lying on the ground managed to pick up his blaster, and shot it at Kira. The blaster bolt struck her in the shoulder, and she was thrown back. Seeing this, Worf pulled out his bat'telh, Worf brought the weapon down into the Troopers back, killing the man instantly.
Worf then left the rest of the Imperials for the Rebels to take care of, and headed over to see to Kira. Odo was already there, "How is she?" Worf asked.
"I'm fine." Kira said as a wince of pain shot through her, she then looked at Worf, "Go and get what we came here for Worf, you are in command now." Worf looked down at her, "GO!" she said in a more commanding voice.
"I will get her back to the shuttle." Odo said as he picked her up.
"Go with them, and make sure that they make it back." Worf said to a couple of the commandos. They both nodded, followed Odo back to the ship. Worf then hit his commbadge, "Worf to Dr. Bashir."
The Doctor immediately responded, "Bashir here."
Worf took a deep breath, "The Coronal has been wounded."
"How bad is it?" Bashir asked, with blaster and Phaser fire going off in his area.
Worf talked as he walked up to join the rest of the commandos, "She was shot in the shoulder by a blaster." Anticipating the Doctors next question, "Odo is taking her back to the shuttle as we speak."
"Ok, I will head out there as soon as I can, Bashir out."
Worf then looked at the Rebel commandos. While he had been talking to Bashir, they had applied the explosives to the door, and were now getting ready to blow it. Worf ducked back behind a corner again, and the demolitions expert blew the door into the lab.
******
Luke pushed down on the fire button, and a Proton Torpedo leapt out of the launcher, and streaked right at the Interceptor that he was trailing. The torpedo hit the Tie and it blew up as Luke swung his fighter around to track another squint. Luke took a moment to check his monitors, and noticed that he and Tycho had taken the force of 12 Squints down to 6, but then he noticed several other marks headed their way. "R-2, can you identify those other ships coming in?"
The small droid beeped an acknowledgment, and placed the data on Luke's monitor, "THEY ARE ANOTHER SQUADRON OF TIE INTERCEPTORS." R-2 reported.
Luke watched as Tycho scored another Squint, and hoped that they would be able to hold out until the rest of the Rogues could arrive to help them out.
******
Worf was the first one into the lab, and pointed his Phaser Rifle at the group of weapons designers that were in the room. "Nobody move!" he commanded as the groups Slicer moved into the room, and began to access the computers. One of the researchers became brave, and started to move in to stop the Slicer, but Worf leveled his weapon at him, and fired. The stun blast sent the researcher flying back a couple of feet and he landing hard on the ground. Worf then indicated the man that he had just stunned, "Take a lesson form your friend there, and stay were you are."
"Got it," the Slicer said in triumph, "we should be out of here in a few minutes."
Worf nodded, as he kept one eye on the Slicer, and one on the researchers. After a few minutes had passed, the Slicer stood up, and nodded the he was finished. Worf then set his Rifle on wide dispersal, and when all of the commandos had left the room, he hit the trigger, and sent a wide beam of energy out to stun all of the researchers in the room. He then turned and left without another word, only a smile o his face.
******
The second squadron of Interceptors had made Luke and Tycho's jobs a lot harder. Before the second group had gotten there, they had managed to take out only two more fighters from the original group. Luke felt the fighter rock, as his X-Wing was hit time after time by fire from one of the Squints that was on his tale. But he had hardly gotten off a command for R-2 to try and increase the power to his shields when he saw an explosion behind him. Luke turned around, and saw that the rest of the Rogue's as well as the Corvette had arrived, and were now making short work of the rest of the Squints. Luke smiled as he keyed his comm., "I am glad that the rest of you could make it."
"And let you have all the fun Commander?" Dack asked, "No way."
Pride began to swell in Luke, as he began to direct the battle, "Ok, here is the plan, Wedge, take Kason and the Freedoms Edge, and protect the shuttle from the Squints. The rest of you join up with me and Tycho and start knocking out as many of them as we can." Luke heard a chorus of acknowledgements from all of the Rogues, and they all went off to handle their assigned duties.
******
The moment that Crix Madine heard that the first team had gotten the new weapons technology, he had ordered his group to head back out to the ship. Just before they got back to the landing platform that the shuttle what on though, Nog yelled the everyone should stop, "I hear something." The young Ferengi had said, and that was all that Madine needed to hear. Earlier when they had first arrived at the Research Center, Nog had said that he had heard something just as one of the commandos in the party had turned around and corner, and had been blasted by a Storm trooper that had been there. Madine decided that it was wiser that they listen to the alien form then on out, and had not been ready for any of the Imps that could be waiting for them, but also had lost a lot less troops outside of actual fire fights.
"What did you hear Nog?" Madine asked
Nog was about to answer, when a group of 10 Storm Troopers came around the corner with their weapons firing. "Take cover, and return fire!" Madine ordered to all of the commandos.
All of the commandos scrambled as red blaster bolts shot past them. Nog had dove behind a crate, and aimed is Phaser Rifle at one the troopers, and fired. The Storm Trooper flew back, knocking another trooper out of the fight as well. Nog was just lining up to take out another Storm Trooper, when a Phaser beam hit him from behind. Nog then watched as the second group of commandos moved up from behind the trooper formation.
After dispatching the last of the troopers, Madine's group moved out from behind the cover that each of the had taken, and Madine walked up to Worf, "Good job Commander Worf," Madine said to the Klingon, "but how did you know that we needed help?"
"We heard the blaster fire as we moved out to the shuttle, and decided that you may have needed some help." Worf said.
Madine smiled, "Good job." he said to Worf, and then turned back to the rest of the members of his commando group, "Ok, lets move out."
******
With the rest of Rogue Squadron joining the fight against the Interceptors, the battle was very short. Luke had no sooner vaped the last of the Squints, when the speakers in his helmet activated, and General Madine's voice came through it, "Commander Skywalker, mission completed."
"I read you General," Luke said, "bring the shuttle to barring 5.3, and we will cover you on your return trip to Home One." Luke then swung his X-Wing around, and switched his comm. channel to the squadron frequency, "Ok Rogue's, we are now escorting the shuttle back to Home One. Form up around it, and follow it out." Luke heard all of the Rogue's acknowledge the order, and they all flew over to the Shuttle.
******
Bashir ran his scanner over Kira's shoulder, and shook his head, "It looks like most of the nerves in your shoulder were damaged by the blaster bolt." Bashir looked at his tricorder, and frowned, "I am not sure if I will be able to repair them until we get back to DS9 though."
Kira looked at the Doctor, obviously not to pleased with the news that he had just given to her. Then one of the commandos moved up to them, "General Madine was wondering how the Coronal was."
Bashir looked at the man, "I can't do anything for her until we get back home."
The commando looked at Bashir, "I think that we can help her out sooner than that, and then walked away without another word.
"What was that all about?" Odo asked? Bashir just shrugged his shoulders and returned his attention to Kira.
Chapter 20
Worf stepped out of the turbolift onto the Bridge of Home One, and immediately saw Admiral Ackbar, and moved up to him. "You wished to see me Admiral?" Worf asked.
"Yes Commander," Ackbar said as he looked at the handed a data pad to another Calamari officer, "I understand that Coronal Kira was injured in the raid on the Weapons Research Facility."
Worf nodded, "Yes, she was."
"How is she doing then?" Ackbar asked.
"I am not sure," Worf said, "when we got back to the ship some of the ships medics took her to your sickbay, and placed her in some sort of tank."
Ackbar smiled, and shook his head, "They put her in a Bacta tank then. She should be fine before we get back to the base."
Worf was not sure if he quite believed the Admiral, but he knew better than to contradict him in the presence of the rest of the crew, so he decided to let it go and see if this Bacta stuff would help the Coronal. "Was there anything else Admiral?" Worf asked.
Ackbar looked at Worf, and nodded, "We will be emerging form hyperspace in a few hours, and at that time I plan to try and make contact with the Alliance base. Since Kira will more than likely still be in the Bacta tank at that time, I was hoping that one of the other members of your crew would like to be here when I make contact?"
Worf thought the request over, and figured that it made a great deal of sense, Chief O'Brien and Jake Sisko might be wondering how the mission went, and when the rest of the crew would be returning. "I will be here when you make the transmition." Worf said.
Ackbar smiled, "Good, I will let you know when we leave hyperspace then." Worf nodded to the Calamari, and then left the bridge.
******
Kira floated in the Bacta tank in an almost hypnotic way as Odo watched her. She was nearly naked, with the exception of the garment that she wore under her uniform. The Medics had attached a breather mask to her face, which covered both her nose and mouth, and as far as he could tell, Kira appeared to be in some sort of daze. Just then Bashir walked into the room, and looked at the Coronal floating in the tank. "How is she Odo?" Bashir asked, knowing that Odo had not left the side of the tank since they had put her into it.
Odo shrugged his shoulders, "It's hard to tell if she is getting any better." Odo paused, "At least as far as I know."
Bashir nodded, and then looked up at Kira's shoulder, and saw that the wound was indeed healing. When they had first gotten to ship, Bashir and Odo were with the medics as they stripped Kira out of her uniform. The blaster wound on her shoulder had looked really bad. The skin was a mixture of blackened skin and blood, and all indications were that every nerve in that area had been destroyed with no hope of ever being able to restore them properly until they got back to the station. Now, the wound was a lot smaller, and it looked like the flesh around it was growing back at an accelerated rate. Just then a medic came into the room followed by a medical droid. "Good," the medic said, "it looks like she is responding exceptionally well to the Bacta."
"How can you tell?" Odo asked.
The medic looked at Odo, "Usually a blaster wound like that takes about 2 or 3 days to heal properly, but your friends wound is healing up in only a matter of hours." The medic checked his chronometer, and nodded, "She should be out of the tank in a few more hours."
******
Worf stepped off of the turbolift and onto the ships bridge. Ackbar looked at the Commander from his command chair, and smiled, "Ah, Mr. Worf, we are just about to leave hyperspace, and send a signal out to the base." Worf nodded, and walked up to the Admiral, "So, how is the Coronal doing?"
"Better," Worf said, "Dr. Bashir sill still want to check her out when she comes out of that tank, but he suspects that she will make a full recovery."
"Excellent." Ackbar said as both he and Worf watched though the veiwport as Home One left hyperspace, and entered real space.
Almost immediately, the officer at the comm. station called out, "Admiral, we have an incoming transmition."
Ackbar stood up, and moved over to a view screen, "Lets see it." He said as Worf moved up behind him.
The screen activated, and the image of Mom Mothma appeared on it. "Admiral Ackbar," Mom Mothma said, "I am sorry to inform you of this, but the Ord Mantel base has been evacuated, and we are moving to our fall back location."
Ackbar nodded, "What happened?"
Mom Mothma looked at Ackbar, "An imperial agent captured Chief O'Brien, and nearly killed Captain Solo and Chewbacca. They were able to escape, and warn us, and all of the ships barely made it out of the system before a Super Star Destroyer and it's escort ships came into the system."
Ackbar nodded, "Then we will meet up with you in the Moroby system and then jump to our new base?"
"No," Mom Mothma said, "you will proceed to the Naboo system, and meet up with the Aries there."
"The Naboo System?" Ackbar asked.
"Yes," Mom Mothma said, "we are going to help our new allies return to were they belong."
Before Ackbar could say anything more, Mom Mothma moved out of the image, and Mile O'Brien moved into the frame. Worf stepped up to the screen, and the Chief immediately saw him, "Worf, were is the Coronal?"
"She was injured during the raid, and is undergoing medical treatments at this time." Worf informed him.
O'Brien nodded, "Ok, while you are on route to the Naboo system, I need for you and Nog to check on a few things." Worf nodded to O'Brien, and he continued, "First off, I need you to look at the torpedo launching system on one of the X-Wings. See if it can be modified to launch a Photon Torpedo, and then I want you to see if one of their Proton Torpedo's can be modified to act as a Photon."
"We will get to work n it right away Chief." Worf said, "Was there anything else?"
O'Brien shook his head, "Not until we get there." He then looked away from the screen, and then looked back, "I just sent you a copy of the plan that I cam up with to get us back to Federation space, just look it over, and get ready to implement it when we meet up."
Worf nodded, "Understood Chief." The screen then went dark as the transmition was cut.
******
Darth Vader looked at the printout of the transmition that he had just received from Taloraan, and was not very pleased by it. A Rebel strike force broke into the weapons research facility there and had stolen all of the information that they needed to improve their weapons to nearly that of Imperial level. What most troubled Vader, was that witnesses had said that they had seen people that matched the descriptions of the Federation. This angered Vader to no end, but he was able to control his anger so that he could make a transmition to the Emperor.
The Emperors image loomed large in front of Vader, and he fell to one knee. "My master, I assume that you have heard about the latest Rebel raid?" Vader asked.
"I have indeed," Palpatine said to his student, "and it troubles me that they were helped by these Federation people."
"As it does with me my Master." Vader said.
"How is the dismantling of the Rebel base proceeding?"
"Unfortunately it will take us another day or so to completely demolish the base so that it can never be used again." Vader reported.
The Emperor frowned at this news, "Then contact the Star Destroyers Annihilator and Devastator to the Naboo System, were you first met the Federation people, and have them destroy them when they arrive to try and return to were they came from."
"It will be done my Master." Vader said as the image of the Emperor vanished.