On board the ship, the race to make it to orbit and avoid Vong
pursuit was a heated one, in more ways than one. The Yuuzhan Vong had
perfected their starfighter analog in its capability to out flank and
destroy ships several times their own size, but against a pilot as skilled
as Corin, and aided by his apprentice, Gaea, the massed plasma fire of
their three pursuers amounted to little more than would a few decently
piloted TIE Interceptors. And Interceptors had been outdated for two
decades.
"We may have just lost the aft deflectors," called Gaea from the topside gunnery turret on Corin's personal YT-2000 Corellian freighter. The dimming of the lights briefly told her that the deflectors had just been reinforced. Corin did not bother issuing orders as he flew. She knew what he would want her to do, and when to do it. The moment she had informed him, he had reinforced the rear deflectors and punched up the power feed to the quad-cannon turrets. The ventral gunnery seat was manned by a friend of Corin's, a mercenary with Force sensitivity and amazing piloting skills, by the name of Rend Starpyr. Rend was about as warm as Hoth on a cold solar day, but he was good at what he did. And what he'd been trained to do was kill. He'd been one of Admiral Daala's handpicked assassins, bent on fulfilling her last order to him, which had been to eliminate Corin and his pupils, if any. Now, ten years later, he was an operative in the Jedi underground, helping get Jedi being hunted by the traitorous Peace Brigade to safe havens where they could effectively disappear. Until recently, Coruscant had been rife with such safe houses. No longer. Rend had a vengeful hatred of the Vong that Corin feared could only lead to the dark side, but at this point, it was probably moot. Besides, Corin couldn't exactly warn Rend away from the dark side...he himself had spent much of his early years an unwitting but very willing thrall to it.
"Coming up on the atmospheric terminator. Entering high orbit." As usual, Rend had little to add aside from the readouts he occasionally volunteered.
"Three skips inbound and closing fast on our tail." Gaea again, her voice emotionless.
Corin was focused his senses on the Force and everything around them. He kept track of the ships around them, blasts of plasma crisscrossing space, debris and fluctuations in energy. But mostly, he was focusing on what wasn't there: the gaps in his perceptions amidst the blanketing synergy of the Force. By watching for these, he had an added sense of where the Vong were, for what good it did him. It also showed him where the gravitic focuses that blocked his escape vector were originating. Keying the comm switch at his arm, he explained his plan to Gaea and Rend.
"I'm going to need you both to reset your firing configuration to stutter-fire. These are the two dovin basals in our way." As he spoke, specific portions of the Lancer frigate analog ahead of them were bracketed. "I'm going to launch a pair of torps at each, the first will be duds. Keep suppressive fire overtaxing their voids, and try to do as much damage as possible. As soon as we get a clear vector, we're out of here."
"Understood." This was Gaea. Rend responded with a comm click so as not to divide his attention from hitting the Vong. Rend had been using the stutter fire configuration before the Vong invasion had made it fashionable, and very few gunnery officers in the New Republic or the remnants of the Empire could match the damage he could do with it, even on normal fire settings. Rend opened up on the newly targeted dovin basil, burning a meter wide hole in it before it could even move it's void shield around to swallow the energy. Gaea managed to do roughly a third of Rend's damage before the void could cover its creator. And then, something changed, as the first two proton torpedoes launched at their prospective targets. Gaea and Rend switched targets. Corin smiled grimly, watching Gaea's basal fail and burn out before the torpedo targeting it could even connect. One down...
"Corin, we've got more company." Corin glanced down at his screen, noticing a fourth coral skipper he hadn't picked up before. Sithspit. This could get ugly, he thought to himself.
"I heard that," muttered Gaea over the internal comm.
"Less chatter, more fragging." Corin shook his head. Other than Beth, no one had been able to pick up on his emotions this well. Of course, he reflected as he deftly twisted the Knight Shadow out of the path of a pair of plasma blasts from their pursuit, no one frustrated his emotions this much, either. He felt a twinge of self-consciousness from Gaea as she tagged one of the fighter analogs chasing them.
"Gaea." He keyed the comm, a half smile frozen on his face as he tried to keep track of the most recent skip to join the chase.
"Yes, Master?"
"Try focusing more on what isn't there than what is."
"Um...yes, Master."
He clicked off and hoped that she would take the hint. Whatever chemistry there was between them, he wasn't going to let her carelessness get her and his passengers killed. The click was punctuated by the explosive death of the Vong matalok-class cruiser. He keyed the comm again as he punched up the power directed to the engines.
"Rend?"
"What?" replied the gunner, irreverent as ever.
"Want to stick around and find a few more mataloks? Maybe a worldship or two to sate your cannons?"
"Might as well. You've certainly got a lead on me in kills." He paused to finish off another coral skipper. Corin suddenly realized that none of the original skips chasing them were among the cloud now chasing them, but it was tripled in size. One of them had gotten close enough to strip the shields with its dovin basals but it looked like they didn't have any serious damage.
"On the other hand, our passengers are probably getting a little nervous." Corin smiled, laughing inwardly.
"Discretion is the better part of valor. And being alive to get them back later is definitely a plus," Gaea remarked.
"What about my kill count?" Rend demanded with mock severity as they reached optimal jump distance from Coruscant gravity-well. The only answer was relieved and tense laughter as they made the jump to hyperspace, on a heading taking them for what was once a haven to no Jedi: the heart of the Imperial Remnant. Bastion.
"We may have just lost the aft deflectors," called Gaea from the topside gunnery turret on Corin's personal YT-2000 Corellian freighter. The dimming of the lights briefly told her that the deflectors had just been reinforced. Corin did not bother issuing orders as he flew. She knew what he would want her to do, and when to do it. The moment she had informed him, he had reinforced the rear deflectors and punched up the power feed to the quad-cannon turrets. The ventral gunnery seat was manned by a friend of Corin's, a mercenary with Force sensitivity and amazing piloting skills, by the name of Rend Starpyr. Rend was about as warm as Hoth on a cold solar day, but he was good at what he did. And what he'd been trained to do was kill. He'd been one of Admiral Daala's handpicked assassins, bent on fulfilling her last order to him, which had been to eliminate Corin and his pupils, if any. Now, ten years later, he was an operative in the Jedi underground, helping get Jedi being hunted by the traitorous Peace Brigade to safe havens where they could effectively disappear. Until recently, Coruscant had been rife with such safe houses. No longer. Rend had a vengeful hatred of the Vong that Corin feared could only lead to the dark side, but at this point, it was probably moot. Besides, Corin couldn't exactly warn Rend away from the dark side...he himself had spent much of his early years an unwitting but very willing thrall to it.
"Coming up on the atmospheric terminator. Entering high orbit." As usual, Rend had little to add aside from the readouts he occasionally volunteered.
"Three skips inbound and closing fast on our tail." Gaea again, her voice emotionless.
Corin was focused his senses on the Force and everything around them. He kept track of the ships around them, blasts of plasma crisscrossing space, debris and fluctuations in energy. But mostly, he was focusing on what wasn't there: the gaps in his perceptions amidst the blanketing synergy of the Force. By watching for these, he had an added sense of where the Vong were, for what good it did him. It also showed him where the gravitic focuses that blocked his escape vector were originating. Keying the comm switch at his arm, he explained his plan to Gaea and Rend.
"I'm going to need you both to reset your firing configuration to stutter-fire. These are the two dovin basals in our way." As he spoke, specific portions of the Lancer frigate analog ahead of them were bracketed. "I'm going to launch a pair of torps at each, the first will be duds. Keep suppressive fire overtaxing their voids, and try to do as much damage as possible. As soon as we get a clear vector, we're out of here."
"Understood." This was Gaea. Rend responded with a comm click so as not to divide his attention from hitting the Vong. Rend had been using the stutter fire configuration before the Vong invasion had made it fashionable, and very few gunnery officers in the New Republic or the remnants of the Empire could match the damage he could do with it, even on normal fire settings. Rend opened up on the newly targeted dovin basil, burning a meter wide hole in it before it could even move it's void shield around to swallow the energy. Gaea managed to do roughly a third of Rend's damage before the void could cover its creator. And then, something changed, as the first two proton torpedoes launched at their prospective targets. Gaea and Rend switched targets. Corin smiled grimly, watching Gaea's basal fail and burn out before the torpedo targeting it could even connect. One down...
"Corin, we've got more company." Corin glanced down at his screen, noticing a fourth coral skipper he hadn't picked up before. Sithspit. This could get ugly, he thought to himself.
"I heard that," muttered Gaea over the internal comm.
"Less chatter, more fragging." Corin shook his head. Other than Beth, no one had been able to pick up on his emotions this well. Of course, he reflected as he deftly twisted the Knight Shadow out of the path of a pair of plasma blasts from their pursuit, no one frustrated his emotions this much, either. He felt a twinge of self-consciousness from Gaea as she tagged one of the fighter analogs chasing them.
"Gaea." He keyed the comm, a half smile frozen on his face as he tried to keep track of the most recent skip to join the chase.
"Yes, Master?"
"Try focusing more on what isn't there than what is."
"Um...yes, Master."
He clicked off and hoped that she would take the hint. Whatever chemistry there was between them, he wasn't going to let her carelessness get her and his passengers killed. The click was punctuated by the explosive death of the Vong matalok-class cruiser. He keyed the comm again as he punched up the power directed to the engines.
"Rend?"
"What?" replied the gunner, irreverent as ever.
"Want to stick around and find a few more mataloks? Maybe a worldship or two to sate your cannons?"
"Might as well. You've certainly got a lead on me in kills." He paused to finish off another coral skipper. Corin suddenly realized that none of the original skips chasing them were among the cloud now chasing them, but it was tripled in size. One of them had gotten close enough to strip the shields with its dovin basals but it looked like they didn't have any serious damage.
"On the other hand, our passengers are probably getting a little nervous." Corin smiled, laughing inwardly.
"Discretion is the better part of valor. And being alive to get them back later is definitely a plus," Gaea remarked.
"What about my kill count?" Rend demanded with mock severity as they reached optimal jump distance from Coruscant gravity-well. The only answer was relieved and tense laughter as they made the jump to hyperspace, on a heading taking them for what was once a haven to no Jedi: the heart of the Imperial Remnant. Bastion.