Star Wars: The Parody Strikes Back
Part Eleven
Jedis to the left of him, Jedis to the right of him, the remains of Stormtroopers at his feet. So this is what it all lead to. Another slaughter like dozens before them. Except maybe there was a chance to bring this all to an end here, now. His hands gripping the lightsaber felt so very weary. The bridge was somewhere ahead of him. He and 16 other Jedis were heading toward the bridge to stop the Imperial Juggernaut before another planet fell. He felt like he was Theseus wandering the labyrinth in search of the Minotaur. Instead of string he was unwinding to find his way back later, it was the wick of one those cartoonish spherical bombs. Ironically the wick would be lit by his allies, the Rebels; fore as soon as those shields dropped... He had to get through the labyrinth, slay the Minotaur and get out before the hole thing went up in fire and explosions so bright that they would serve as the grandest liberation day fireworks display Coruscant had ever seen. Hopefully he wouldn't be part of it. He didn't have anything left right now, but he can always rebuild. He didn't like the idea of being a martyr, people probably just spell his name wrong. Besides, wouldn't it make sense that there would be escape pods near the bridge?
"Merac, hurry up! Were going to need to get everyone we can get. Don't go chicken on us." That was Gras, probably the most experienced Lightsaber dueler, aside from Luke, in this whole operation. Did this operation have name? Strange, he thought it would. Operation Die Imperial Scum? Operation Brief Reign? Operation Final Battle 2?
His thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of something inside one of the supply closet. Ripping open the door using The Force, he found a Stormtrooper cowering inside. "Please don't. I have a wife and kids," the guy whimpered out.
"I used to as well."
"What happened to them?" He knew the answer to the question he asked. He just wanted to live another few seconds more.
"You and your buddies did." The next two sounds were the 'zruum' of the lightsaber and a thump. Did he even have a weapon? Oh well, slice first ask questions later was the modus operandi (MO) of this war.
If it hadn't of been his, home planet would never have been attacked. He'd still be living a comfortable life while the rest of the galaxy blew itself up. He would have had 4 living reasons not to join the Jedi academy. Still, was vengeance taking hold? He'd had 8 years to deal with it. He remembered a quote from Yoda that Luke had told the academy, "Side the Dark, tempation of resist, must you. Fail you if, butt kick your, I will." He wasn't quite sure what it meant. But it had the words Dark, butt, and kick, so either it was an description of the powers of Dark Jedis, or his a type of jeer of what we'd do to the them. Why did the little guy speak like that? Did he have a stroke or something? Or maybe this is how the guy thought. He'd been in the academy since Luke created it, shortly after the battle of Endor. His powers had surfaced themselves during the battle of Hoth.
"Imperials! There's at least two squads in a corridor at 9 o'clock!"
Turning as quickly as possible, he was just in time to see an Imperial Heavy Repeater discharge a photon grenade right at him. The blue swirling mass of energy with a white core came flying at as blaster fire also erupted from either side of it. No time to dodge, he decided block it the only way he could: he put his lightsaber between him and the grenade. Another one of Yoda's quotes was sheepishly sounding in his head, "Morning, in the, sting, will this."
He must of closed his eyes, because he didn't see what happened to the grenade. He heard a tremendous explosion and felt wind and debris fly past him. Then he opened his eyes to discover that the wall in front of him and to the right now desperately needed a new layer of paint. A Jedi next to him had her hand outstretched from just having done a Force Push. Ge's next trick was to throw her lightsaber through the guy who had launched the grenade. Unfortunately, her only means of defense now gone, a battle droid shot her. Another Jedi rushed up to heal her but was in turn shot. Then another rushed up to heal them both and was shot. As a third Jedi rushed forward he got the bright idea to take out the battle droid. With a burst of speed forward and a few chops, the shields fell and the droid was destroyed. Inspired by his brilliant display of tactics, a few Stormtroopers nearby fell from the blades of the Jedis. Then Ge's lightsaber, like a trusty boomerang, returned to the master who had thrown it. He hoped somebody back there would catch it, or at least see it coming.
The surviving Stormtroopers then began to retreat. Except for one or two that were Force Pulled back and summarily sliced, half dozen survivors got away. He slowly walked forward and looked at the helmet of a fallen trooper. He saw reflected in the eye covers his home land. Smoking and desolate. Well ordered streets and buildings reduced to gray pebbles, and dust, with the occasional block of defiant concrete standing up. The cold wind blowing through the streets, bits of clothing rustling in it. Not wanting to see it over and over again as he had the past 8 years he tried to remove the image from the eye covers with a series of kicks.
"Whoa, save your energy. There are plenty more where these guys came from. Besides, why kill drones when the king bee is within your grasp?"
"There's no such thing as- oh never mind. The person ultimately responsible for this is already dead. Vader beat me to it. Lucky jerk." Amazingly he was the most in control and ready to move on than he had been in years. Right after the attack he had joined the Rebellion. He tried to deal with loss by fighting in the bloodiest war in known history. That was the equivalent of trying to dose a flame with gasoline. He remember much of those years, it was such a frenzy. Luckily for him was one of the gifted few with Jedi powers, brought out by the anger and the years of exertion fighting The Empire. As soon as the academy opened about a year ago he joined. According to Luke, one could not fight with anger with his heart, so had to contain it. The calm and the fury still contested for control, but at least now he saw hope. He was grateful for Luke as a teacher, without him he would have been no better than the Sith.
He turned around to see Ge and the three Jedis who were shot in succession trying to heal her during the firefight. She was dead. Her returning lightsaber had gone right through her, and taken off the arm of the Jedi behind her. The others beside Ge were still alive and being healed of their blaster wounds by the rest of the Jedis. Her lightsaber was on the floor behind her, still ignited. He slowly reached over and turned it off. He'd always found Ge quite attractive. She wasn't the overall brightest person in the academy, but a quick thinker. She always dressed as if it was 10 warmer than it actually was. He let out a long sigh.
"I- I can't feel my left arm!" he heard to his side.
"There's a good reason for that." He looked down at his own left arm. Everything below the shoulder was mechanical. The Jedi Academy was a tough school. One slip and the blade would go right through you. The instant cauterization of the wound prevented bleeding or infection. Even though the nerve was effortlessly severed, it still hurt, a lot. Most of the populace seemed ignorant of this. Good thing for the improved artificial limbs technology. It had advanced quite rapidly over the last few years. He heard that when Vader had his right arm severed it had been replaced by a machine-looking bronze colored replacement. The new arms felt and looked quite real.
It was really quite a good symbol. A mechanical arm, tireless, unchanging, only deteriorating until it is unuseable, hating forever. Then his real arm, weaker maybe, warm, constantly healing, regenerating, able to hope. Runne, the Jedi who had just lost his arm, could be healed and ready to struggle on in few moments. He doubted they'd just run across an artificial arm somewhere on the ship, so he'd have to only use his Force powers, he obviously couldn't wield a lightsaber now. Such a harsh reality, but if being front lines of the war for 8 years had taught him anything, he'd have to accept reality. He only hoped Runne knew that now, rather than having to realize it in time.
Unexpectedly, the intercom came alive, "Strike Force 5 to the Aetius, the assault on the Emperor's palace has come to within 100 kilometers of the objective. It is bogged down by heavy Rebel resistance in the rubble. Requesting planetary bombardment at co-ordinates... -what do you mean I'm using the wrong frequency?"
"How much further to the bridge? They can't hold out for long."
"The Imperials will never retake the planet, the Rebels will fight to the last person."
"Still, we should finish this quickly. These endless skirmishes only waste time and personnel."
"Wasting personnel? I lost my arm! What am I supposed to do now?" That was Runne, now hysterical. That was understandable, he went through the same thing. The feeling of uselessness would last for a while.
"Can you heal with one arm?" It was a rather callous question to ask, but it was important. "You can still push and pull using The Force. Think of yourself as the designated medic." Those were some of the most unsympathetic words he'd ever spoken, but that was the way it needed to be. He was healed from the blaster wound and there was no behind the lines to put him to wait out the battle. We certainly couldn't just leave him here.
"We must hurry! Do you how many people are dying down there? -"
"There are plenty of people dying in here."
"Where do you think that air vent leads?" Harrus was looking up at a grate in the ventilation system. "I'll bet it leads right to the bridge."
"How would you know that?"
"I saw a schematic of a Star Destroyer once. Besides what you suggest we do, stop and ask for directions?" Harrus was definitely not a natural navigator, nor was he the slimmest person here.
"Why not? All we have to do is take a Stormtrooper alive."
"Well you can. I'm going to take the easy way." With that he cut open the grating in the ceiling and leaped into the vent. After a few seconds of shuffling, a muffled sound came from the vent. "Well, what do we have here? Ow! AH! Get away little Sarehar! Away! Ow! Nasty aren't you?" Then he ignited his lightsaber and it poked through the shaft as he tried to kill the thing. Several slashes later, it stopped and his muffled voice was heard again, "I'm okay. Those little things pack quite a bite to them. Go on ahead, I'll get the drop on them- OW!"
"Another Sarehar?"
"No, those metal edges are sharp."
Shaking his head and stifling a burst laughter, he lead the group forward. Time to navigate the maze to find the Minotaur. Twenty steps later he was at a door that read "Bridge Entrance." Now he left out the laughter.
"What's so funny?" Harrus' voice was barely audible.
(Aloud) "Nothing, just some graffiti on the wall." (Softly to the others) "Do really want to that guy watching your back?" (Normally) "Now this is it. Before we go in, I think it would be appropriate to say one of Yoda's proverbs Master Luke told us. 'Head my not is a cupholder.' I don't know what it means, but master Luke said it like he was proud of our accomplishments. Maybe we avoided doing something he did. I say we make him proud again!"
With that they opened the door and rushed in. They didn't catch the admiral unaware. In the room there were half a dozen battle droids, two dozen Stormtroopers, a dozen officers with guns, another dozen with lightsabers, 6 Dark Jedi in hoods, 3 Dark Jedi with special weapons and Darth Vader armor, and one Admiral Lerutan of the Imperial Eighth Fleet and defacto Emperor all facing them. There were 15 Jedis barely inside the room. Behind them was large view screen with the titanic battle raging on it. What appear to be a mushroom cloud from a tactical fusion explosion was rising from the surface of Coruscant, dwarfed by black smoke from a huge series of firestorms, with tinges of blue through it. The planet itself seemed afire, dying.
The officers with lightsabers looked like zombies. With rigid limbs, glazed eyes, and completely unresponsive to the world. What was this, a new Imperial drug? Three Dark Jedis had weapons he'd never seen before. One had a lightsaber connected to each arm above the hand, with extensive guards to prevent the wearer from accidentally slicing off a finger. Another had a weapon best described as a lightsaber pickaxe. A double lightsaber mounted on a long shaft which was mostly protected by the same energies the lightsaber used, leaving a exposed point where the three blades met. The last one had what looked like lightpike. With a blade as long as an entire double lightsaber, it had a grip twice as long any other lightsaber he'd seen. Where the blade met the grip there where 4 tiny blades, each at 90 to the grip, providing a hand guard.
Lastly there was Admiral Lerutan. Behind his three specially equipped Sith he smiled at them. His white beard was crumpled from wearing a helmet, his mouth barely curled so its tips were hidden by his graying moustache, a small scar on his left cheek a mark from his martial life, his brown eyes piercing, his hairline receding. He was wearing Darth Vader armor as well, but with red should plates. His helmet, which was resting on computer console next to him, had a red centurion plume. His left hand held what reminded him of a Gungan energy shield. It was much more high tech-looking than it rustic predecessor. His right hand held a coffee cup. He took a sip from the coffee cup and said calmly and arrogantly, "What took you so long? I had time to get a fresh cup." Then the next actions happened so fast he could only catch it because he was a Jedi: He tossed his coffee cup aside, put on the helmet, and ignited his short, one-handed lightsaber and his energy shield. This was apparently the signal to attack, as the guns belched forth their light and the those wielding lightsaber-like devices charged forward with the admiral in their wake.
Kras fell to his left, unable to block all the incoming shots. As the lightsabers collided, the electrical discharges provided a crackling feeling on his skin he hadn't felt at this magnitude since he and 5 other Jedi cadets sparred with Luke Skywalker a few weeks ago. As those with skill in The Forced paired off and dueled, the blaster fire lessened, for fear of shooting their own people. He heard the boom and crackling as Force Lightening discharged and the cries of one who was being flash fried on the inside. He found himself before one of those zombie officers. He didn't sense any Force Powers coming from her, but with all the interference the only thing he could sense for certain was the Admiral's immense power. She certainly didn't look like any type of Jedi, just a regular human wielding a blade meant for someone of far greater power. Her first stroke quickly dispelled any confidence he had. While not elegant, more like a stumbling lunge, it was powerful; he barely parried it. Stroke after stroke were fast, powerful, and were either met with weak parries or outright dodges. After being forced back a few meters, and being unable to mount any sort of offensive, he realized it was time for fresh tactics. She wasn't co-ordinated, just strong. He leaped backward a few steps and pulled her with The Force towards him. Unable to block it, she rushed forward. He just pointed his lightsaber far in front of him, and she was pulled onto it.
Quickly he took a look around. Two Jedis were dealing with the battle droids and officers carrying blasters. There weren't too many in the bridge, so the sides were fairly balanced. He saw the Admiral wince in pain for a second, but nothing had touched him, curious. It was just a second and he threw a fireball at the nearest Jedi, incinerating him. Fire?! That was something he hadn't seen a Jedi, light or dark, do before. Most of the dueling was taking place to his right, so found himself in the sights of a battle droid. He couldn't block the torrent fire coming from the droid, so he did a series of leaps and rolls to evade it. All those acrobatics put him behind a surprised Stormtrooper. Quickly, he punched a hole in the armor, gripped it, and raised the Stormtrooper slightly off the ground. Using him as a human shield, he charged the droid. With a chop of the lightsaber he killed two birds with one stone. Tossing the body aside, he saw that he had gotten the attention of a quite a few of the blaster wielding officers and Stormtroopers. He didn't have time for these guys, he wasn't needed back dueling Sith. After deflecting the first volley, a few Force Pushes sent them off their feet. With a burst of speed, he charged at the nearest Sith.
That turned out to be the one in the Vader armor with the lightpike. He already had two Jedi in front of him. That weapon, that lightpike, had a such a reach, from 3 meters back he did a swing at them. Impossibly slow, but with incredible momentum it was blocked by the Jedi. Well, kinda blocked. There was so much momentum behind the swing, despite the resistance of the lightsaber, both weapons cut through the Jedi. Once it cleared the first Jedi, it just kept going and cut through the second Jedi who didn't expect it. Then slowly the lightpike turned to face him. That thing was slow, but unblockable. He'd just have to take advantage of the slowness to dodge.
With a Force powered leap he went right over the Dark Jedi and landed behind him. The lightpike was too heavy for him to lift it fast enough attack, and now it had to swing it 180 to attack him. He actually had time to pick where he was going to slice this guy in two. He picked to do so at the neck, clean and efficient. With that done, he turned his eye to the main target: Admiral Lerutan.
He already had two Jedis fighting him. He wasn't pulling off any fancy acrobatics or athletics, but he was still fast and quite agile in the armor. Make that one Jedi fighting him, the other one had just met the short lightsaber that the admiral was wielding. He charged right in. Finish this now and hopefully forever. Even though he was charging from behind the admiral, his face met the energy shield. His teeth now aching, he proceeded to duel. Overhead chop, side slash, thrust, underhanded swing were all parried by the admiral, who was rapidly turning, so he was in effect facing both Jedis at once. Yet another Jedi joined in the fight. The rest of the Dark Jedis were proving no match for Luke Skywalker trained Jedis. Three on one, and the best opportunity to get past his defenses took 20 strokes to arrive. It was a diagonal slice when Lerutan's lightsaber and shield were busy with the other two Jedis. He tried to physical dodged it, but it glanced off his shoulder plate, sending sparks into the air, and leaving an unsightly molten streak on the perfectly polished armor. The admiral grunted in pain, and the grunt was echoed by several voices around him. He resisted the temptation to look and see why. Lerutan had slipped, and he was not about to slip again. He got even faster, letting the Force power his speed.
All three of them couldn't land another blow. The admiral then killed one right before he heard Clifford let out a yell and came charging in. He wasn't wielding a normal lightsaber like the rest were, he had picked up the lightpike and was charging forward as fast as could keeping the point toward Lerutan's back. He and the other Jedi leaped out of the way, and the admiral tried unsuccessfully dodge. With his back still to the pike, it put a large gash in his right side, and then tore through the armor as he dodged to the left. He winced, louder than his previous grunt, which was again echoed by others in the room. As Clifford continued forward and passed the admiral, he was incinerated by a blast from Lerutan. He then proceeded to use The Force to send the lightpike spinning upwards and going right through the ceiling. Then his posture... relaxed. He heard several bewildered statements around him, and he couldn't help but to look. He was that one of the officers that had been resembling a zombie was back to normal. He was looking puzzled at the lightsaber he no longer knew how to use. He dropped it and took out his blaster pistol. What the heck was going on here?
He turned back to learn what grievous error he had just made. He took his eye off what was the most powerful Sith in the galaxy. He saw the hand wielding the lightsaber and the felt the Force Push that hit him. He was sent back flying through the air, dropping his lightsaber. He then slammed into the wall, heard some dull cracks, which he assumed were his ribs, and slowly slid down to a the ground, resting in a sitting position. He was lucky actually. He should have been killed by a stroke from the admiral, instead he got blow that knocked him out of the skirmish, and should have killed him. But it didn't, however he faked it. That wasn't very hard considering how his body now felt. Keeping his eyes open a slit, he remained motionless, using The Force to slowly heal himself.
That's when Runne, still alive, came running towards him, intent on healing him, or at very least check if he was dead. With only one arm, he couldn't use a lightsaber properly, and thus had abandoned it. That wasn't smart, that was a Jedi's best defense. That readily proved itself when Runne ran into a series of blaster shots. He could tell by the way he slumped forward that he was already dead. He groaned to himself as more pain and rage welled up inside. He liked Runne, he was an excellent conversationalist, a very comical person to be around. Steeling himself he surveyed the situation. His years fighting The Empire had taught him to ignore to personal feelings, however painful. Most of the Stormtroopers and officers were dead. All the battle droids lay in ruins. The Dark Jedis were no match for the Lukeskywalker trained Jedis, but had the advantage of numbers, however that advantage was rapidly disappearing. The two remaining Sith in Darth Vader armor were still around, and had a noticeable advantage over the Jedi who facing, who he counted as 8 remaining, not including himself.
He watched the Dark Jedi with the two arm blades for a few seconds. He (tentatively he assumed it was male, since he no way of telling the gender under the armor) was wounded. The armor was molten in several places, and was breathing quite heavily. Either well disciplined or unaware, he continued fighting against a Jedi, Nyr, from the look of it. The arm blades had short range, but could moving very quickly. Nyr was on the defense. Then Nyr's blade locked with one of the Dark Jedi's blades. He moved forward to deliver the killing blow to Nyr, but instead did a jump kick to another Jedi was coming up to his side, launched himself in the air, toward yet another Jedi, Amat, who was already in the air, flying towards him. The two took a series of slices at each other as they passed midair. He landed in one piece, Amat landed over a length of several meters, in several pieces. Upon landing the remaining two Jedi rushed to engage him. His response was to spin rapidly, creating in effect, a disc around him of his lightsabers, threatening to cut anyone who dared to come too close. Nyr's move was tactically brilliant: He threw his lightsaber underneath the spinning blades, cutting him in two at the abdomen.
Those two Jedis then spoke quickly to each other and then rushed over to fight the admiral. Lerutan was now surrounded by 5 Jedis. He was now going much faster than before. When he was dueling him, he knew that Lerutan was using The Force to speed his movements, as he did too. Right now he was using The Force to speed his movement so quickly that they were a blur, even to him. He only knew Luke to channel The Force to raise his speed by that much, for a such a long duration. They really could of used Luke here. He would be on par with the admiral. Well at least he was in his X-Wing, taking out some Imperials right now. Still it was such foobar that Luke wasn't here right now. Lerutan had only his short lightsaber and an oval shield about 1.5 meters high, but none of the Jedis could land a stroke. Had it been ancient times, the Admiral would have been said to have encased in an impenetrable and invisible dome of steel around him. Any slice from the front, the side, from behind, or even from above was parried. At least Lerutan was on the defensive, and burning tremendous amounts of energy. He could almost feel the room get more humid, as that black and red figure continued his frenzy.
That was when he felt it. The largest disturbance in The Force he could remember, far much more than anything he had imagined possible. The admiral was charging up for something big, really big. Lerutan's body when rigid from a split second... and then lightening burst forth from his entire body, wrapping around the Jedis surrounding him. Writhing, they all fell to the floor. Normally, Force lightning was emitted from a single hand, in a limited arc. Lerutan had just released lightning from his body, in a 360 arc! He never heard of any Sith capable of this. Even Luke's tale of Palpatine had the former emperor launching lightening in a small arc. To provide a limit to the fear and hopelessness he was feeling, the lightning hadn't killed the Jedis, though he sure bet they were in more pain then they had ever felt before. The admiral also appeared quite drained. That didn't stop him from slowly walking over and finishing off the fallen Gras with his lightsaber. Then he calmly walked over and killed Nyr in the same way.
He now felt the rage spilling over, it had just reached its boiling point. He didn't care if he wasn't fully healed yet. He didn't care that he didn't stand a chance. He didn't care if he could still escape. All that ran through his mind was that he was going to kill that man, before he cruelly killed anymore of his friends! He sprang to his feet and used The Force to pull a lightsaber from a fallen Dark Jedi into his hands. He than rushed at the admiral with an animal fury.
He never reached Lerutan though. Mid-stride the bridge shook so violently that all inside were knocked off their feet. Snapping out of the rage, hope came back for a moment. The shields had dropped! That was the feeling of the ship being pounded by the full weight of the Rebel Alliance! The hope then faded as quickly as it had arisen; he was almost out of time. The Rebels were in a win-win situation: If Lerutan dies by Jedi hands, they win. If Lerutan dies when the ship buckles under, they win.
The admiral was back on his feet before he himself had even hit the floor. "Computer, activate self destruct sequence, five minute delay," the admiral's heavily muffled and winded voice came from within the helmet. What was trying to do anyway, ensure a Rebel victory?
"That voice pattern is not recognized, security has been alerted to your position," the monotone computer voice came back.
The admiral was ticked off. He tossed aside his helmet revealing a red, sweaty face. "Computer, activate self destruct sequence, five minute delay!"
"State authorization code."
"AlphaGriffinGammaHades49584832ImperiumPysche495KamehaehaDelta4856AndA1/3Idiotic-SonOfAnOrcEplisonCoruscantHothZeusZebraOrangutanFoxtrotBlueJadeMonkey138548650.69-BlackOmega." Quite winded, he nearly doubled over.
"Authorization code invalid."
"Computer, activate self destruct sequence, five minute delay!" Now he was in a full blow rage. He was spraying saliva in the general direction of the ceiling.
"State authorization code."
"I (expletive)ing said so!"
"Authorization code accepted. Ship will self destruct in five minuets. Now in 4:57."
"Computer, discontinue audio transmissions."
"State authorization code." Rage returning, he pointed his lightsaber wielding hand at the nearest speaker and shot lightening into it. Looked like enough to short out the audio system for quite a distance. It suddenly dawned on him why the admiral was doing this. The ship was going down one way or another. The Rebels weren't expecting a self destruct, so when it exploded it would take a lot of Rebel ships with it. But how did Lerutan expect to live through it?
By now everybody else had gotten to their feet. Lerutan was in no mood to fight them all until his death one way or another. He scrunched his face and then every Imperial in the room went rigid and their eyes glazed over. They then charged at the Jedis, while Lerutan made his escape. He finally put two and two together and realized this was the fabled mind control Lerutan was capable of. He wasn't going to let him get away. Igniting his lightsaber, he cut right through a mind controlled officer and followed Lerutan out the door.
He had almost made it out when he felt something like a baseball bat slam into his leg. He fell to the floor as the pain coursed up through the leg. Using an arm to flip himself onto his back, he look at his leg and saw he had been shot. Looking up, he saw an officer with a blaster pistol pointed at him from the opposite side of the room. Before a second shot could be fired, a slice from a Jedi's lightsaber saved him. No time to heal, he painfully got back to his feet and limped after the admiral as fast as he could. This certainly must have been a pathetic chase. Lerutan was wearing heavy battle armor, wounded, fatigued and still draining due to the effort of mind control (which was holding the rest of the Jedis in the bridge). He wasn't even using The Force to speed his movements, he was going on normal muscle power. On the other hand, Lerutan didn't have a hole in his leg. He was limping along, just trying to keep Lerutan in his sight. His ribs hurt more than his arm did when it got sliced off a few months ago. At least he had one advantage, Lerutan didn't know he was being followed.
As they went through corridor after corridor he heard something coming from an air duct above them. "Somebody help! I'm stuck! Why did somebody set the self destruct sequence? Hey! I know you're down there, I can hear the footsteps. I'm pinned with my lightsaber jammed into my gut. Hello somebody-." He ignored Harrus and kept struggling along. The lights flickered with every shot that slammed into the hull in their section. Like a ancient ship that sailed the sea, the floored rocked to and fro, he was barely able to keep his balance. Every time the ship rocked another wave of pain shot through his leg.
It felt like an eternity, but they arrived to were the admiral's last hope lay: the escape pods. As Lerutan stopped at to look where there any open pods, he heard him coming. The admiral turned around and saw him. "Are you still here?" With that a motion of the hand pulled his lightsaber from his hands. Still midair, the admiral used his own lightsaber to destroy his. Then he relaxed and (he guessed) released the other Imperial from his control. Using some of the energy he was expending to maintain control, Lerutan shoved him using The Force against the wall. He then holstered his lightsaber and turn off his shield, flinging it aside. The admiral then began running along the wall searching for a pod. Most of the pods had already been launched by the crew. Some in their haste had only gone one per pod, instead of the usual dozen it could contain. The few that remained were damaged beyond use due to battle raging outside.
By no means was he left alone. He still felt the admiral's Force power on him. Then as a vent of Lerutan's growing frustrations he flung him from wall to wall. He had become the human pinball. Still keeping an eye on Lerutan, he saw him pounding on a console, no doubt trying to find an undamaged, unlaunched pod in a nearby section. Finally, he came to rest after another slam to the floor. The admiral turned to face him, he was smiling. He must of found the pod he was looking for. He could still make it out.
Unable to move, his body a broken shadow of its former self, he uttered,
"Life is nothing but death in disguise,
It's a rule, everything dies,
Everything rots, everything decays,
Nothing born ever stays."
It was something he had thought up on one of the many night patrols he had been on. He has been fighting straight for 8 years; he knew he couldn't fight anymore.
"What the heck does that mean?" Lerutan said towering above him.
"It means turn around and look out a window." Before a pod launched, a door shut to prevent a hole in the hull when the pod did launch. Each door had a window in it. Through it he could see the looming shape of the Flashpoint, the Rebel flag ship. Rebel capital ships looked much different than their Imperial counterparts. Him it looked like the skeleton of giant fish, painted pale green. It was so close he could see almost see down one of the fore mounted ion cannons. They were pointed right the pod bays. Everything went into slow motion. The red beam of energy first slowly rose to the cannon's lip, then it grew in intensity as it gathered power. Then it discharged, and all he could see through the windows was red. As the room filled with fire, and metal shards were blown back from hull the last thing he heard were the admiral's last words, "Noooooo, myyyyyyy peeeennnssssssiiioooonnnnnnnn!"
Remus was covered in a cold sweat as he enter the shield generator room, passing the knot of dead Jedis and Sith. The security squad before him had eliminated the last Jedi. The shields were down and he was the only person in the section that knew how work the shield generator. He look at the console and stated, "There's nothing mechanically wrong with the generator! Somebody just turned it off!" With the press of a few buttons the shield generator started humming and crackling as it slowly came back to life. He'd just saved the butts of everyone on this ship. "Send a transmission to the admiral. The shields are back up, he can cancel the self destruct seq-" He never finished the sentence. A string of explosions occurred as the timer on self destruct sequence ran out, and the Aetius blew itself apart.
