Supernova
Chapter 9
by Black Dragon
revcoll@peoplepc.com
http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/fanficlair/index.html
Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own anything from Ranma 1/2 or Star Wars. Both are far greater than I and my little computer could hope to accomplish.
Chapter 9 Death Seed *************************************************************************** *******
*Rac, do a full systems check. We're moving in.* Ranma's voice poured in over the communications systems, and a screen popped up that placed the positions of the Ion Storm and Dark Angel in reference to the Wild Horse. Back on the two fighters, Rac appeared on the communications display as he read off the functional systems. *TURBOLASER SYSTEMS ONLINE. CANNONS 4 AND 7 OPERATIONAL, THOUGH THEY CAN ONLY FIRE AT 45% POWER WITHIN STANDARD SAFETEY PARAMETERES. ALL MODIFICATIONS COMPLETE AND READY. TACHYON ACCELERATOR AND SPECTRUM FLUX GENERATOR OPERATIONAL.* Ranma nodded from within his fighter. "Good. Rayden, you all right?" *Roger. Let's do this.* "All right then. Maintain current speed to the target area, then break off to attack. I'll handle the fighters until you've got the shields down on the target." *Gotcha boss. Moving to attack position.*
Katrina sighed as the Wild Horse pulled away from the sensor shadow of Ryloth's second moon, its two fighters flanking on either side. She had been trapped within the Wild Horse for four days, and though she hadn't been locked up, everyone but Ranma had her under tight surveillance. Still, she didn't want to miss the first bit of action she'd have since boarding the vessel, so she found a seat in the bridge and watched as Arak talked to Yuri over a holographic projection of the engagement area. "So you see, at this point we're going to engage the target directly. I'll inform you when we get close enough. Then it's all up to you." Yuri nodded a bit nervously, and Arak kicked away from the holographic display table, his chair rolling up to the diagnostics control panel. "What exactly are we doing here?" Katrina ventured. "Just a little business trip. Nothing too bad," Arak ceded. "Just stay out of the way, would you?" Katrina glared at him, but after a few moments her stare lost its intensity. Looking at one of the sensor readouts, she noticed that the small group of pirate craft was approaching a larger group of small capital ships. "APPROACHING PASSIVE SENSOR RANGE. WE HAVE BEEN DETECTED. ONE OF THE FRIGATES IS HAILING US." Arak stood up, then cleared his throat. "Patch us through. Audio only." *-will not tolerate any unprovoked offensive action! Power down your shields and weapons systems and prepare to be boarded!* Arak laughed. "Give me a break. If that's all sir, prepare to defend yourselves. Rac, cut off communications. Good. Feed power to the ion cannons and heavy ion relays. Pick some targets and prepare to fire. Disable all but the target vessel." "AFFIRMATIVE. TARGETS LOCKED. MOVING INTO ATTACK POSITION." Rayden's voice floated suddenly from the comm station. *The black sun sets. Night is coming.* Yuri and Katrina appeared startled, but Arak nodded somberly. "All systems armed and ready. Fire." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Sir! The Wild Horse is approaching!" The sensor tech looked nervously at the captain, being aware of the light frigate's reputation in combat. The captain scratched his chin as the bridge officers awaited their orders. "Strange. The freighter port is in the other direction. Why would they be attacking a diplomatic convoy?" The captain knew that Mal Ta'ern was worried about being killed by the pirates that were supposedly based in a massive asteroid belt several parsecs away, but he didn't really think there was anything to it. "What's all the commotion around here?" Speak of the devil. The Twi'lek captain's brain tails twitched slightly as their diplomatic cargo walked on the bridge. "Sir, a pirate ship has just appeared, and is commencing an attack. We are at full alert, I suggest you return to your quarters." "I knew it!" The senator cried, much to the captain's chagrin. "I knew it all along! They're trying to kill me! They know that I could have them destroyed, so they're trying to kill me!" The captain sighed. "Yes, well, we're here to make sure they don't succeed, so if you would just-" "Sir! Fighter 2, designation Dark Angel has just broken through our defensive line!" "Increase forward firepower! Take down that ship!" The captain demanded. "Affirmative sir! The first fighter is engaging our fighters..." the tech trailed off. "Yes? And?" The captain snapped, wondering why the man had stopped. "It's using its ion cannons. It's disabling each ship." The captain puzzled over this for a moment, until the tech once again shouted. "The Dark Angel is firing on us!" "Sir, we will take care of this. Please return to your quarters." The captain turned away from Mal Ta'ern, and then grit his teeth as the senator shouted in surprise. "What are those?! What are they doing to the shields?" "Captain, we have impact! Shield power at 82% and dropping fast!" "Tell the other ships to close in and try to box the fighter in with laser fire. Where's the rest of the fleet?" "More of our fighters incoming! Ion Storm is engaging!" "The Wild Horse is closing fast! They're firing on the gunships! Ion cannons only!" "This is it... my final hour..." "Sir, would you PLEASE return to your quarters?!" ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
Blue, yellow, and orange fire tore at the small capital ship like an acid, sucking away the shields. Rayden would've laughed if he wasn't busy trying to stay alive. The black, spidery form of the Dark Angel zipped through space as lances of energy slashed to all sides of it. "Hey Arak, how about a little fire support here?" Rayden rolled to one side and cut his speed, and two New Republic X-Wings cut through, raking laser fire. "If we're gonna pull this off, we'd better hurry!" Rayden accelerated once again, barely avoiding a turbolaser blast that drained his shield power, and launched another two plasma grenades that slowly arced over to the Corellian gunship and detonated.
The Wild Horse finally entered the battle area, and found itself immediately subjected to heavy laser fire from many disgruntled gunners who were tired of trying to hit the fighters that were causing such a fuss. On the "neck" of the deceptively powerful craft, twin mandibles started opening up, revealing two giant barrels surrounded by cables and wires. *THOOOM* With a mighty burst of energy, huge spheres of blue-white ion charges rocketed toward the nearest gunship, leaving trails of sparkling blue motes free-floating through the inky void. The cannons impacted soundlessly, sending blue ribbons of energy crawling across the outer hull of the ship. In moments, the gunship's shield and weapons systems were down, and the ion dampers were overflowing as they tried helplessly to further contain the massive energy flux.
As the gunship tried in vain to restart its fried electronic systems, the Wild Horse turned to the next of the three gunships guarding the Corvette that held the target. They started to branch off in different directions, a good idea since Arak had only built the Ion flux cannons into a straight forward firing arc. The Wild Horse's other ion turrets rained blue lightning through the area, taking out fighter after fighter as they attempted attack runs on the mighty frigate.
The last X-wing in the immediate area shook violently as Ranma's ion cannon played havoc with its drive systems. Unable to maneuver, the fighter was struck by another might bolt and lay dead in space. The Ion Storm veered off, approaching the firefight almost leisurely as the Wild Horse rendered another gunship helpless with a concentrated burst of ion fire. Right next to the Corvette, and firing with a desperate futility at a faint charcoal colored shape outlined by the pure black of space, the final guard ship burned with a beautiful luminescent light as high-pressure plasma scorched its armor. The firing stopped, and the gunship began to move away from the battle, though not heading toward the planet or any of the space stations. Most likely shooting for a break into hyperspace.
Completely alone, the Corvette fired its weapons in wild arcs all around it, to no avail. Huge twin ion bolts blasted into its side, its shields already decimated by the powerful plasma grenades. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
*SHIELDS ARE DOWN. WEAPONS SYSTEMS ARE DOWN. DRIVE SYSTEMS ARE DOWN. THE TARGET IS DEAD IN SPACE.* Rac's electronic voice boomed over the communications link, and Ranma flipped a switch on his console. "All right, here's where the fun begins. All craft, switch over to modified primary weapons systems. Prepare to fire on my mark." *THE TARGET SHIP IS HAILING US.* "Ignore it. Ready?" *I'm gonna enjoy this...* Ranma grinned at Rayden's exuberance. "Fire at will." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Sir! All ships are opening fire!" The tech shouted in panic, then looked to the corridor as if thinking he might make a break for the escape pods. "How long until shields are up?" The captain shouted back, though he knew it was useless. On the floor next to him, Mal Ta'ern clutched his brain tails to himself, gibbering wildly. "Uh, sir?" "What is it?!" The captain snapped. The man was at the station monitering the damage to the ship, and he wasn't particularly in the mood to hear him. The tech winced, then glanced back at his readings. "Sir, I'm reading no damage to hull and armor beyond what we've already sustained from the plasma weapons." The captain blinked. "Yes? So?" "So... the scopes show them firing. Why aren't we taking any damage?" The entire bridge crew sunk into contemplative silence. That is, until the Ion Storm buzzed the bridge, blasting away as it sped past. The bridge crew sweatdropped collectively as huge patches of yellow and green splattered onto the main window of the bridge. Mal Ta'ern stood up slowly. "What the HELL is that?!" One of the techs looked at him dubiously. "It's... um... paint, Senator. They're shooting paint at us." "Really tacky colors too," one of the other techs added. Understandably confused, the senator turned to talk to the captain, only to see that the man was leaning heavily on the railing, holding his face in his hand. "I don't believe this. I don't believe this at all." He turned around, and the senator started. "Hey! Where are you going?" "To my quarters!" The Twi'lek captain snapped. "I've just been brought to the brink of destruction and then had my ship assaulted with paintball guns! I'm going to get some rest before I get demoted or shot!" He then turned toward the crew. "You've all got the rest of the attack off. Go sleep or something." The various people in the bridge looked at each other. "Sir, what if the pirates fire with real weapons?" "You think we could stop them?" The captain countered, and left into the hall.
Outside, the Dark Angel made a run on the bridge, covering the yellow and green spots with blue and off-white. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
Katrina stared listlessly as the turbolaser turrets pounded massive volumes of paint onto the target, giving it a rather awful color scheme of pink, dark orange, and swamp mud brown. "Uhm... this is probably a stupid question, but... why?" Arak nodded. "You're right. That is a stupid question. Yuri, you're on!" Yuri smiled, then hit some keys at her firing station, which attracted Katrina's interest. What was the girl doing? Yuri took hold the joystick, then moved the targeting reticle that appeared on her viewscreen onto the beleaguered Corvette. With the press of a button, the bright yellow beam of the hyper laser seared into the unprotected (though very well coated) hull of the Corvette. Arak watched for a few moments as the beam cut a few circles and made a few odd symbols that looked like bubbles. "What is that?" "IT IS A VERY PREVALENT DIALECT OF MON CALAMARI. IT SAYS 'THE KNIGHTS OF THE DARK MOON WERE HERE'. THOUGH IT IS MISSPELLED." Yuri blushed as Arak and Katrina sweatdropped. "Misspelled? Are you sure?" "ADD A HALF CIRCLE TO THE RIGHT OF THE THIRD SYMBOL. A LITTLE HIGHER." "Well, it's... creative," Arak mumbled. "Rac, what's the ETA on the Ryloth defense fleet?" "THE FLEET IS MOVING INTO ATTACK POSITION EVEN AS WE SPEAK. THEY WILL BE WITHIN FIRING RANGE SOON. I SUGGEST AN IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL." "Agreed." Arak hit a few keys at the communications station, and a link with Ranma's fighter was opened. "Ranma, the job's done and the recording's finished. I suggest we-" "WARNING!! SEVERAL UNKNOWN VESSELS EXITING HYPERSPACE!!" Arak started, and Yuri and Katrina looked at him in worry. "What? Who..." "I.D. CONFIRMED. TWO LANCER FRIGATES, WEB AND NEEDLE CONFIRMED. STRIKE CRUISER STEEL HAWK CONFIRMED. SHADE COMMAND HEAVY CRUISER TITAN CONFIRMED. ALL SHIPS ARE ON AN INTERCEPT COURSE WITH THE WILD HORSE." Arak gulped. "Ranma, you getting this?" *Yeah. Damn, I didn't think Rehli would follow us so quickly. Rayden, form up on me!* Yuri scooted over to the comm station and looked at the fast approaching group of ships. "Can't you just blast your way through them?" Katrina stared at the green-haired girl like she was stupid. Arak just sighed. "Well, we might stand a chance of doing that... if we hadn't converted all the laser cannons into paintball guns." Yuri sweatdropped. She'd forgotten about that. "We could try and fight our way through with the Apocolypse Cannon, our ion cannons, and the launchers as our only active weapons, but even if we managed to put forward enough power to bust through, the Ryloth fleet would take us apart from behind. We're stuck." Now Katrina started to look scared. "Well, don't you have some sort of plan?" Arak smiled ruefully. "Of course! I always have a plan!" Then he put his feet up on the comm console and leaned back in his chair. "I plan to wait here and let Ranma deal with it when he gets back." Katrina kicked the bottom of the chair, and Arak cried out as he toppled backward. "This is no time for jokes! We've got to do something!" Katrina growled, and then yelped as she felt a metal rod poke into her back. Turning around, she smiled nervously as one of Rac's floating drones retracted a manipulator arm. "MAY I REMIND YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT A COMPONENT OF THIS CREW, MISS CLOUD? IF YOU CANNOT KEEP YOURSELF FROM INTERFERING IN OUR AFFAIRS, I CAN EASILY HAVE SHIKODAN INSTALL A LOCK ON YOUR QUARTERS." Katrina would have retorted with something sharp and witty, but was uncomfortably aware of the multitude of autoguns that the ship's computer controlled all around the Wild Horse's interior. Off to the side, Yuri let a smug smirk cross her face before she started worrying about their imminent deaths again. "So how long before they reach us?" "THE RYLOTH DEFENSE FLEET HAS SLOWED DOWN TO A CRAWL DUE TO OUR FRIENDS FROM SHADE, THOUGH IT SEEMS THEY ARE INTENT ON INTERCEPTING THE CORVETTE. THEY WILL AVOID ENGAGING US HEAD-ON IF THEY CAN, AND WILL REACH FIRING RANGE IN TWO MINUTES. THE SHADE FLEET IS MOVING MORE SWIFTLY, BUT AT THEIR HYPERSPACE VECTOR IT WILL BE EIGHT MINUTES BEFORE THEY ARE WITHIN FIRING RANGE. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE APPROACHING THE NEAREST EXIT INTO HYPERSPACE AS WELL." The drone shined its red sensor light in her eyes for a moment, and Yuri flinched nervously. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS?" "How about cloaking and sneaking by them?" She ventured slowly. Arak shook his head. "Won't work. They know we're here, and they'll know when we'll cloak. Their scanners are good enough that we won't be able to sneak by that closely without being detected. And if they open fire while power is diverted to the spectrum flux generator..." Arak trailed off, shaking his head. "We can't sneak by them, but we can sneak away from them." Yuri twirled around at the voice, and felt an odd sense of relief as Ranma stepped in, removing his flight gloves. "Rac," he continued, "put up the cloaking field, then move to sector 81.90 at a slow pace to minimize ion emissions." Arak blinked. "But... that'll put us right between the two fleets and the moon's gravity shadow. If someone finds us, we're dead!" Ranma grinned. "Then we'll have to make sure they don't find us, won't we?" Katrina shook her head. "But where else will they look? They'll know we didn't sneak by them, and they'll know we didn't sneak by the Twi'lek fleet..." Before Rac's drone could pull out its taser, Ranma answered her, instantly making the question a valid one. "Oh, will they? Rac, send out a probe, emitting minor ion emissions as it travels on a path through Ryloth's defense fleet. Move into orbit around the moon and prepare to make a break for it after the two fleets engage each other." Rayden walked up behind him, staring at the holographic display. "Will that work?" Ranma shrugged. "I don't know. But it couldn't hurt to try, right?" Arak slapped his forehead. "Yes, it could." "LAUNCHING PROBE. PROBE IS AWAY. PRAYING..." Everyone blinked at that. "You have a pray function?" Rayden asked, surprised. "NO, BUT IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE." Arak groaned. "I do NOT need this right now..." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Admiral, we have reached the Senator's ship. Orders?" The young admiral of the Ryloth defense fleet stared irritably at the video screen on his bridge. How could one pirate ship cause so much trouble? "Recover the senator and restart the ship's systems; I want that Corvette repaired. And scratch that rubbish off the side! What is that, anyway?" "It's Mon Calamari, sir. It says 'The Knights of the Dark Moon were here'." "What the hell does that mean?" "I've no idea." The admiral snorted, and his brain tails twitched. "Well, what do they have to say for themselves?" The holograph sweatdropped slightly. "Well, they, uh, didn't answer any of our hails..." "What?! Why not?" "Well... our scans show that they've all been released to their quarters. It's very odd..." The admiral shook his head. "I'll speak to the captain personally later." Without another word, the admiral terminated the communications signal and turned toward his subordinate. "What's the status on the other fleet?" "They're approaching at top speed, admiral. Our sensors are reading full power long range scans. It appears they're looking for the Wild Horse." "Well, then we have a similar goal, at least. Still, they're approaching far too quickly for my taste. Identification?" "We have a Steel Hawk, Titan, Web, and Needle. None of those are on any New Republic roster... Scanning a list of all known Imperial remnant fleets... nope. Let's try a more comprehensive search..." "Where does someone other than an Imperial warlord find heavy cruisers and Lancer frigates? These aren't exactly common craft we're dealing with." "Sir! I found one of them! 'Steel Hawk' was a ship that fought its way through the Galactic Police orbiting Keeryu just a few weeks ago! Unknown origin and allegiance, but I'd make a bet they're not the friendly type." "Acknowledged. If this scum thinks he can just march right through MY planet, he's very badly mistaken." "Admiral! We're being hailed from the Titan!" The admiral grimaced as he turned once again to the viewscreen. "Put it through!" He was rather surprised when a picture of a blue-skinned man appeared on the screen. All the ships but the Titan were known Imperial designs, and even the Titan itself looked vaguely Imperial. The Imperials were known for many things, among them their dislike of non-humans. The man stared at him in stoic silence, before speaking in a cold, firm tone. "I assume by those ornaments on your chest that you're in charge here, so let's make one thing clear: I'm here for the Wild Horse and the Wild Horse only. I will destroy it, and then leave." The admiral raised an eyebrow. "Oh! And what would your name be, sir?" The blue man scowled. "My name is of no concern to you. Either destroy the Wild Horse, or allow my fleet to destroy it. That will conclude my business here and I will be on my way." The admiral scoffed. "Well, feel free to destroy the man if you wish, but stay away from Ryloth. I don't care who you are or what grudge you have with those pirates, but I will allow neither to threaten MY planet." Boran looked off-screen for a moment, then his face glared hard at the Twi'lek. "He's moving through YOUR fleet even as we speak!" The admiral blinked, and his features hardened. "Really? And what, exactly, would make you think that? Last I heard the ship was cloaked, and I know you couldn't detect it from your position even if it were here." "I could detect the ion emissions from the asteroid belt if I had to! They must have a damaged engine! They're moving right through you!" Boran snapped. His patience with this Twi'lek fool was growing thin. The admiral turned to one of his tech officers, who pointed at his screen and then shrugged helplessly. Then he turned back to the fuming Shade operative. "Those emissions are originating from a probe that was shot through our fleet. It's a harmless science probe without a propulsion system. The Wild Horse is nowhere near us." Boran snarled at him, and then, without another word, cut the link.
"Admiral! The fleet is still advancing! They'll be within firing range in 6 minutes!" The admiral nodded. The blue fellow obviously wasn't a lawman, or he'd have handled the situation better. And this admiral in particular had no love for rogue commanders with large Imperial craft at their beck and call. "All craft, prepare to intercept the two Lancer frigates on my mark. When they're occupied, launch our fighters. And move the Senator and his ship to the planet! I want no civilian casualties!" "Right away admiral!" ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Rehli, sir, are you sure about this? I mean, they said it was just a probe..." Several of the men of the bridge crew stared at their captain and admiral questioningly. Boran chuckled to himself, and shook his head as if the question was childish. "You don't understand. Not surprising, really." Boran straightened, then gestured with his hand. "It's very simple. A ruse. Saotome shoots the probe, and it's dismissed as harmless, or a distraction. Meanwhile, he follows behind it, and his own engine emissions are dismissed as the probe's!" The entire bridge crew let out an "Ah..." of understanding. Boran grinned. "Saotome is too clever for his own good. These fools will pay the price for their idiocy! Scramble all fighters! Onward!" "Yes sir!" ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
Katrina watched in disbelief as the holographic display table zoomed in on the battle, showing the little laser bolts as the ships came within range of each other and started firing. "Hey, can we get some better resolution here?" Rayden shouted. Instantly the picture seemed to solidify and become clearer. *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* Katrina, still quite confused, stared at Ranma incredulously. Ranma noticed her stare. "I'm sorry, did you want some?" He raised the bag of popcorn to her, but she didn't do much other than gape, so Yuri took some instead. "Ooh, nice move with the light cruiser. That'll give Rehli something to worry about." "Hey look! The Lancer's trying to go around!" "Captain must not be too bright. He'll get cut to pieces by those Corvettes." "Is that an A-wing group on the left, or are those Headhunters?" "A-WINGS. THE GROUP IN SECTOR 78.03 ARE HEADHUNTERS." "This is so cool!" Yuri said, swallowing her popcorn and leaning forward to observe the firefight more closely. "Who do you think will win?" Ranma shrugged. "I dunno. Rehli's trying to break through, not annihilate the fleet, so he'll probably survive, but I doubt he can 'win'." "THIS IS CORRECT. STRATEGICALLY, ADMIRAL REHLI IS OUTGUNNED, BUT THE TWI'LEK FLEET IS TOO UNDERPOWERED TO STOP HIM IF HE WERE TO TRY AND ESCAPE. ONCE HE REALIZES THAT WE ARE NO LONGER A VIABLE TARGET, HE WILL ORDER HIS SHIPS TO RETREAT TO HYPERSPACE. THE TWI'LEK FLEET WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP HIM." Yuri and the space pirates nodded in understanding, while Katrina stared, still mesmerized. Ranma tossed the empty popcorn bag behind him and stood up. "Well, it's about time we blew this joint. Rac, move us into the nearest hyperspace vector. Top speed." "AFFIRMATIVE."
As Rayden and Arak moved to different stations on the oversized bridge, Ranma turned to Katrina. "So, Miss... Cloud, was it? We never really got to talk before, and seeing how we're making a dangerous escape from certain death at the moment, I figure we have some time to get to know each other." Katrina stared at him incredulously and started stuttering. Behind him, Yuri frowned ever so slightly as she eavesdropped. Ranma shook his head as he watched Katrina fall into a nervous silence. "This is about you trying to kill me, isn't it?" She gulped, then nodded slightly. "Aw, don't worry about it. You were just trying to murder someone to make a little cash. I respect that. Sort of. Well, anyway, that's all behind us, so tell me a little about yourself. How did a Jedi get to be a bounty hunter anyway?" This seemed to startle the other members of the crew out of their own activities. Katrina muttered something darkly, but Ranma couldn't hear it. Rayden whirled on her immediately. "You're a JEDI?!" Katrina nodded miserably. "Whoa! Can you do that thing where you choke them without touching them?" She blinked. "What?" "You know, like this." Rayden raised his hand toward Arak, and made a gesture as if he was gripping something in his hand. "Hey! Don't give her any ideas!" Arak shouted nervously. "Look, I can't-" Katrina was cut off before Rayden grabbed her by the shoulder. "C'mon! Try it! Use Arak!" "Hey! Leave me alone!" Katrina turned to Ranma helplessly. He noticed, and shrugged. "Actually, I kinda want to see you do that choking thing too." Katrina sweatdropped, then shook herself out of Rayden's grip. "Look... it's kind of a sore point with me, but... I'm not a real Jedi." There was a moment of silence. "Oh. Nevermind then." Rayden went back to his regular chair and began looking at the ship's readouts. Arak likewise lost interest and checked the ship's heading. Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Not a Jedi? You have the weapon, and that wasn't a rough breeze pushing me around in that hangar." Katrina sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I can use the force, but I... didn't make it to Jedi." "Have you ever met Luke Skywalker?" Yuri interrupted, genuinely curious. The man was the galaxy's #1 celebrity, after all. Katrina rolled her eyes. "Yes, I've met him. He's a pretty nice guy too." "But..." Ranma prompted. The young woman sighed again. "BUT, after several months into my training, he said I was very talented, but I couldn't control my emotions." Ranma blinked. "'Temper tantrums' he called them. Hmph. Well, I sort of got angry at him when he said that he was considering cutting my training, and that was the end of that." She folded her arms under her prominent chest, fuming silently. Ranma nodded somberly. "That sounds pretty bad. Sorry to hear that. Anyway, once we get back to Gor-" "WARNING! INCOMING HYPERSPACE SIGNALS!" Ranma looked startled, and stood up suddenly. "What?" "THERE ARE A HOST OF STARSHIPS EXITING HYPERSPACE AT RANDOM POINTS BETWEEN OUR ENTRY VECTOR AND THE PLANET." Arak pushed a few buttons on his console. "What kind of ships?" he mumbled. "The energy signatures are odd, I can't-" his eyes widened. Rayden stared as the craft made their exits. "Aw, HELL no..." Yuri gasped, and unconsciously grabbed onto Ranma's arm. "Those... those are the same ships that attacked Morcan!" Ranma massaged his head. "I don't believe this. Of all the places, of all the times... *sigh*"
The others watched in horror as the small oval ships appeared all around them, all converging on the heated firefight taking place above the planet. Small globules popped off the bellies of the little destroyers, and the fighters scattered out in a giant web.
Ranma stared hard at the displays. All the smaller ships were coming in between them and the planet, or off to the side, meaning that he still had a clear path into his hyperspace vector. This wasn't like Morcan; he had no reason to stick around and help this time. As long as none of the ships-
"WARNING! HYPERSPACE EXIT DEAD AHEAD!" -exited between him and the edge of the gravity well. Damn it. Out it came. Huge and bulbous, volcanic red laced with black, with clear, pointed crystals marking its bulging mass in small clusters. Headed right toward them. "Rac! Hard to port! Now!" Ranma shouted, and all heard the groan of metal creaking as the engines struggled to bring the Wild Horse around. Yuri gulped and looked up at Ranma, still attached to his arm. "They can't see us, right? We're cloaked!" "They shouldn't be able to-" "WARNING! ENEMY WEAPON SIGNATURE DETECTED!" Ranma didn't finish his sentence. "......... We're all gonna die." Katrina stared at him, terrified, as Arak panicked over his readouts. "I'm getting a mass of energy readings! They can tell we're here! They're firing!" Yuri watched as the bright pinnacles of energy blasted forth from the crystals, meeting no shields and being absorbed into the cloaked frigate instantly. Rayden turned solemnly to his captain. "Ranma, I've never told you this before, but I was always proud to fight for you." Ranma blinked at him, the sudden admission distracting his path of thought. "Huh?" "I'm serious. If it weren't for you, I would be nothing, just some drone out killing people on somebody else's whim. You always treated me like a person, and it's more than I deserve. If I have to go, I'm glad I'll go by your side." Rayden's face was hard and serious. "Wow. That's so... touching." Katrina admitted. A pirate inspired this kind of thing in his crew? Ranma didn't really know what to say. "I... well... thanks, man... you've been like a brother to me." "Arak!" Yuri's voice startled the scientist out of his feverish study of the ship's scanner readings, and he turned to face her. "Don't you have anything like that to say?" "No, I think I'd rather just live." Arak deadpanned. Ranma blinked as he thought of something. "Speaking of living, why hasn't that thing shot us yet? We should be toast by now." "THAT'S what I'm trying to figure out!" Arak yelled. "We've been tagged, but they're not shooting! They're actually heading straight for us!" Ranma looked startled at that. "What's weird is that we're emitting two similar, but different energy signatures. One is from the tagging node, but the other... all I've been able to figure out is that it's reacting with the tagging blast somehow."
As the others erupted into awkward panic and discussion, Ranma detached himself from Yuri's grip and sat down. A second energy signature? Surely it couldn't be a natural resonance from some of the equipment, or Rac would have pinpointed it. He idly glanced down the hallway, then stared. A bright, multicolored light was pouring out of the cracks of his door. Without another thought, he bolted for the hallway, unnoticed by those still on the bridge. Opening his door cautiously, Ranma had to cover his eyes to keep from being blinded as the full intensity of the rays hit him. Allowing a few moments for his eyes to adjust, he peeked through his fingers to see that the throbbing shine was coming from the crystal he had set on his dresser; the same crystal he had found in that crooked salesman's stash back on Gorgon's Moon. Cautiously stepping forward, and with his hand still shading his eyes, he gently picked it up. The light stopped the moment he touched it. 'Death...' a gentle echo seemed to float on a breeze that wasn't there, and Ranma twirled around, trying to find the source of the voice. 'Death is life. Destroyer... one of us? Destroyer help? To live, we kill...' Ranma groaned and fell to his knees on the floor, and a computer monitor slipped out of the ceiling. "I REALIZE THE IDIOCY OF THIS QUESTION IN OUR CURRENT SITUATION, BUT ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" 'Come to us, destroyer. Will you help? Help us kill? Killing is survival...' "Rac, what's going on with the ship?" Ranma desperately tried to push the voice away from him, even as he refused to let go of the crystal clutched in his right hand. "IMPACT IS UNAVOIDABLE, UNLESS THE ALIEN CRAFT STOPS OR CHANGES DIRECTION. IMPACT IS IN 40 SECONDS." 'Help us, destroyer... please... help... the key... the key to death... the ruins...' "Argh!" Ranma fell down once again, putting a hand to his head even as the crystal started glowing again. "IMPACT IN 30 SECONDS." 'Who are you?' Ranma thought, 'What are you?' "25 SECONDS." The breeze returned, but with no words for him. '....................' "20 SECONDS." 'Why must you kill? Why are you doing this?' Ranma thought, hoping he was reaching the other end of this weird communication. That was how this telepathy garbage usually worked, right? "15 SECONDS. THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME ACTIVITY WITHIN THE ALIEN SHIP." 'We kill... to survive...' "10 SECONDS TO IMPACT. IT APPEARS THE ALIEN SHIP IS FLUXUATING SOMEWHAT." 'What are we... does not matter... what were we... mattered once... what will become of us... is all there is now...' "3, 2, 1. IMPACT." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"What the blazes is that thing?!" Boran shouted as he pulled his ships away from what had been a major firefight just moments before. Out in the rubble-strewn space, the blasted hull of a Lancer frigate floated away freely, along with the scorched remains of two Corellian Corvettes. All ships had somehow fallen under an uneasy cease-fire, and the Shade forces had obviously shown their intention to leave before a strange fleet could cut into their lines of defense. The Ryloth defense fleet, while thankful that they didn't have to spend any more time and men fighting off the surprisingly efficient criminal forces, was still plenty steamed that they had to push off a small fleet just to engage a strange new one.
"Admiral Rehli sir! A transmission from the Steel Hawk! They've located Saotome!" "What?! On-screen!" Terry Orn, captain of the Steel Hawk saluted immediately once the connection was made. "Sir! It appears that Saotome somehow got behind us! I was doing a scan of those strange ships and found a solid energy pulse coming from an empty region of space directly in front of the large cruiser!" "Wow, I guess he wasn't that clever," one of the techs muttered, to be silenced by a glare from the admiral. "Get me a picture of that region!" Boran shouted. In moments, a second picture appeared on the large viewing screen, this one showing the bulbous front of the alien battlecruiser. Boran's eye twitched as he caught a flicker of light sweep across some sort of field roughly in the shape of an egg just meters in front of the advancing vessel. "That's them all right. I don't know what that ship did to them, but..." he turned around to address his crew, his eyes cold and hard. "Tell all surviving ships to enter hyperspace, moving away from the alien fleet if possible. Destroy anything that gets in the way, otherwise just move." "Sir, what about the escape pods from the Lan-" "The captain deserves whatever's coming to him for doing something so stupid like that. Move out!" "Uh, sir," Terry got Boran's attention once again, looking somewhat subdued. "Shouldn't we go get Saotome?" Boran shook his head. "Do not engage those craft unless you have to!" He looked up at the display before him and smirked. "Besides, Saotome's not going anywhere." The entire crew of the Titan watched in smug delight as the flickering stealth field of the Wild Horse shorted out upon impact with the alien cruiser. That delight turned to some confusion as the light frigate seemed to sink into the fleshy hull of the vessel. "This is the end, Saotome. It was fun while it lasted." With a cruel laugh, Boran shut down the link to the Steel Hawk, and set his route into the depths of space. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Okay, what the HELL just happened?!" Rayden shouted irritably. Looking out the bridge window, he could see a pink, fleshy tunnel passing by, with strings of... stuff hanging down everywhere. It looked like something from an autopsy tape. Arak was no less confused. "Er... I think it... absorbed us." Yuri looked around nervously. Where did Ranma go? "So now what?" "I..." Arak looked about a bit, his face flushed, "I really don't know." "Well, can we blast ourselves out?" Ranma's voice was a welcome addition to the gathered men and women, and Arak thought it over. "We probably could, but we'd be at the mercy of the crystals outside. I'd really have to know why this thing absorbed us in the first place." Ranma shook his head. "Well, then it looks like we'll have to do this the hard way. Rayden, you're with me. Rac, send a drone with us and keep units 01 and 02 on full alert. Arak, you take care of the girls, all right?" Arak blinked as his two companions shuffled out of the bridge, followed by a black, hovering sphere. Then he turned to the two young women still in the bridge, and chuckled nervously. "YOU'RE supposed to protect US?" Katrina asked blandly. "Well, thank goodness Rac's here." Yuri added. Arak sweatdropped, then turned back to the console in front of him. "I'm reading additional ships coming out of hyperspace... hmmmm... this one is an exact match for the one we blasted at Morcan. Here's another big one." Yuri quickly tired of hearing Arak speculate about how many enemies there were. "I'm worried about Ranma. Is there any way we can check up on him?" Arak sighed and rolled his eyes. "Ranma this, Ranma that, Ranma, Ranma, Ranma," he muttered just loud enough for the others to hear as he toyed with some controls. In moments, a screen appeared that showed Ranma and Rayden's backs as they walked slowly through the tunnels of flesh and slime. "This is a video uplink to the drone Rac's got out there. You can communicate with them as well, but I wouldn't bother them if-" something distracted him for a moment, and he looked over at one of the scanners. "Uhm, Rac, how long have those things been advancing on us?" "NOT VERY LONG. WHY?" "Crud. What are they?" "I'D ASSUME ENEMY TROOPS OF SOME KIND. SHOULD I BRING THE TURBOLASER BATTERIES ONLINE?" Arak looked around nervously, but saw that the girls were engrossed in watching his companions playing "commando". "Yeah, that'd be a good idea. Bring up shields too." "WITH THE CURRENT MASS DISPLACEMENT ALL AROUND THE WILD HORSE, THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE." "Oh... well... blast them before they get too close, all right?" "AFFIRMATIVE... *Beep* SOMETHING IS WRONG. THERE IS ACTIVITY DIRECTLY BELOW US." Yuri tore her eyes away from the screen long enough to panic. "What? What do you mean?" "SOME SORT OF APPARATUS HAS ATTACHED ITSELF TO EACH OF THE TURBOLASER BATTERIES. IT IS SIPHONING OFF ALL POWER." "What?!" Arak shouted. "No way! Call Ranma and-" *Look out! I saw something!* The whining sound of the aliens' unique blasters filled the speakers as the viewscreen showed the beginning of a long firefight. "IT WOULD APPEAR THAT RANMA IS CURRENTLY PREOCCUPIED WITH OTHER THINGS. *Beep* WARNING! AN ENEMY UNIT HAS BREACHED THE HULL!" "What? What's going on?!" Katrina stood up and her eyes darted around nervously. Arak turned to a damage display console and frowned. "Are you sure? I'm not reading any damage to the-" Yuri gasped as a red tentacle creeped out of the floor, and began to slither toward Arak. "Look out!" *Zhoo* *Vwoosh* The lightsaber took the tentacle off in a single stroke, and Katrina backed up into a guard position as two more tentacles phased out of the floor. Arak ushered Yuri away, and all three of them watched as a head and torso followed the tentacles onto the bridge. *Bzzt!* A hatch opened on the cieling, and an autogun popped out. *Rattattattatta!* The alien seemed to... groan desperately as the bullets tore it apart, and its arms seemed to shrivel into nothing before being followed by the rest of its body. The humans let out a breath of relief. "*Beep* WARNING! MULTIPLE UNITS HAVE ENTERED THE SHIP! SEVERAL UNITS ARE ALSO TRYING TO BLAST OPEN THE ENTRY HATCH." Arak blinked. "What? Why? Can't they just phase through it?" "NEGATIVE. I'M READING A DIFFERENT ENERGY MAKEUP FROM THE UNITS THAT ARE ENTERING THE SHIP FROM BELOW." Arak squeaked as several more tentacles floated up through the various consoles, the lights flickering as the energy flows shifted. Then he found himself yanked back into the hallway and away from the bridge. Turning around, he saw Yuri leading the way further into the ship, while the hum of Katrina's light saber was evident from behind him. "We've got to get out of here! Rac, get those robots down here and clear the path in front of the entry hatch!" "IMMEDIATELY." The sound of metal grinding upon metal echoed through the passageways of the ship as the two combat drones slipped out of their power cradles. Arak gaped. "But... we can't! There's more of them out there!" Yuri shook her head. "This place is a death trap! If they can move right through the walls, we have a better chance out in the open!" "MISS XERO IS CORRECT. THE GENERATORS CAN ONLY PROVIDE 8 MORE MINUTES OF POWER FOR THE INTERNAL DEFENSES UNLESS THE SIPHONS ARE DISABLED." As if to emphasize that point, spurts of gunfire were heard from the door separating the hallway from the bridge. Yuri nodded. "Katrina, get ready to back up the droids. Arak, where are the guns?" Katrina frowned as Arak removed some blaster carbines from a compartment in the wall. "Wait a minute kid. I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not taking orders from some kid who's never been in actual firefight before!" Predictably, the green-haired girl glared at her, and Katrina allowed herself to feel a bit smug before something hard smashed into her back, sending her stumbling across the floor. She whipped her light saber around, but stopped when she saw the bright red sensor visor shining its glaring light in her eyes. "YOU WILL TAKE ORDERS FROM WHOEVER GIVES THEM TO YOU. YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?" Katrina's eye twitched, but one look at Unit 01's glowing energy dampener in the pit of its metal fist was enough to quell her temper. Yuri smiled at the large robot and patted it on the plating covering the tread. "Thank you Rac, now let's get out of here." Units 01 and 02 rolled to the rear of the ship, followed closely by the three humans, the last one muttering about little teenage brats and smart- ass computers. Once they reached the hatch, Arak reached for the opening switch, only to have his arm caught by Yuri. "You can't do that! They're gathered around the hatch!" Arak frowned. "Well, what am I supposed to do? I'm sure the droids can take care of it." "Maybe..." Yuri hesitated. Before Arak could ask just when she was put in charge, she turned to the spherical drone that had followed the combat droids. "Rac, divert all remaining power to the engines!" "WHILE THAT'S A CLEVER SOLUTION TO CLEAR THE REAR OF THE SHIP, THE NORMAL ENGINE EMISSIONS WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH TO-" Arak nodded slowly as Rac went on. "Rac, disable the ion dampeners, fuel regulators, and dispersment arrays. Put all remaining power into engines 2, 4, and 6 in one burst! Now!" "ROGER." *THWOOOM!!!* The ship lurched forward as the engines blasted energy into the alien marines, sending them screeching to their deaths as the hot radiation poured through them like a river. Inside the ship, the lights flickered uncertainly before going dead completely, and Arak hit the switch on the entry hatch, causing a rush of air to nearly suck him outside as the much thinner air in the alien ship attempted to stabilize itself. Unit 01 and 02 lumbered down the exit ramp, their torsos swiveling back and forth in their search for hostiles. 01's sensors picked something up, and it turned to focus on a small group of red aliens that were phasing out of the ship. "HOSTILES IDENTIFIED." *Zshoo!* *Zshoo!* The creatures erected barriers in front of them, only to be totally blown away as the plasma tore through the psychic shields with ease. Arak, Yuri and Katrina came rushing out of the Wild Horse, the former nearly tripping over the charred blue corpses of the strange aliens. A floating black drone followed them, casting its eerie red light over the masses of dead. Yuri turned toward the hovering black drone. "Where's Ranma?" "SAOTOME AND SHIKODAN ARE IN THE LEFT TUNNEL." The sides of the drone popped out suddenly, and small crystal rods flashed red as they rotated around the sphere's axis. "SCANNERS DETECT AN ENEMY REGIMENT BETWEEN THEM AND US. COURSE OF ACTION?" "Well, obviously we should-" *BWOOOM!!!* "SCREEEEEE!!!" The alien soldiers screamed as the fleshy wall of the battlecruiser was ripped apart by a proton bomb, and they were sucked into the vaccuum of space. Yuri screamed as the flow reached her, and she fell down as the pull dragged her across the soft, wet floor of the ship. Arak and Katrina both collapsed onto the ground as well, and gripped any available protrusion as air rushed past them. "FRIENDLY UNIT IS DOWN!" Rac's drone turned toward Yuri, and one of its compartments opened up and shot a grappling hook that clung firmly to her shoulder. This didn't do anything but drag the drone along with her, at least until one of the much heavier combat droids reached out and grabbed the sphere firmly in its claws. Arak watched with fascination as the organic bulkhead opposite the ruined wall seemed to melt, and then reach out to fill in the vaccuous hole. Webs of flimy skin fanned out of nowhere, gripping the wall firmly and melding with it seamlessly. Within moments, the hole had been filled, and their intended passageway was blocked by a wall of stringy flesh. Turning to the wall, he saw huge veins pulsing as various liquids flowed through the living vessel, fueling the ship as it defended itself from Ryloth's guardians.
Yuri got up wearily, and located her blaster that had been caught by some sort of slimy node sticking up out of the ground. Staring at it as she wiped the slime off her weapon, she noted that the head of the node ran into a vein of some sort that pulsed blue with energy. A vein that ended at one of the Wild Horse's turbolaser cannons. Katrina got up and made a disgusted noise as she wiped slime off her bare legs. "Well 'commander'? What now?" Yuri ignored the barb, and stared at the multitude of other veins that had latched onto the Wild Horse and were obviously draining its energy. Then she turned to Arak. "Let's go down the right tunnel. Hurry!" Arak shrugged. "Sure. Whatever. Do I want to live forever?" His darted over to Units 01 and 02, who were already clearing a path through the remaining aliens still coming from the other tunnel. One of the red ones put its hands together, and then thrust them forward, throwing a bolt of blue energy which struck Unit 02 in the shoulder, causing a ripple in the air and several sparks. A moment later that creature was disintigrated. "I have a bad feeling about this..." Arak sighed and followed Yuri. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Rayden! You okay?" Ranma shouted as he ducked behind another node of flesh and swiftly changed battery packs in his blaster. Ducking away, he shot two more alien troopers in the head, then rolled away as the node collapsed before a torrent of blue psionic blasts and yellow energy bolts. "I'm all right!" Rayden ignored the pain in his left shoulder, and leaned away from his own cover to fire his blaster carbine into the crowd of defenders in order to give Ranma some cover. In his injured arm he hefted his grenade launcher, its clip half gone and its damage potential evident from the patches of molten plasma still burning through the ghastly hall of the strange ship. Ranma ducked under another volley, then snatched a blaster in his other hand and fired them both into the crowd, annoyed when he saw his shots mostly blocked by the red ones' energy shields. Flicking a clip on his belt, he holstered his blaster right as he felt a small metal sphere fall into his hand. Flipping on the thermal detonator, he tossed it at the feet of the grouped defenders before backflipping away and hitting the ground. *THOOOM!!!* Rayden grunted as he felt the heat wave rush over him, and then noticed that there were more of the blue aliens coming from where they had come from. He raised his blaster carbine and fired into them, also alerting Ranma to their presence. The pigtailed man rolled away from the initial volley, and began firing into the ground, again with two blasters. The aliens fell quickly, but were quickly backed up. Rayden staggered to what was formerly the front of the ridge that had protected him from enemy fire, and then stumbled forward as red tentacles shot up from the ground and wrapped around his legs and arm. 'Don't fight... just die...' Rayden stopped struggling in shock as the voice echoed in his head, and found himself stunned as the rest of the alien began phasing upward through the fleshy ground beneath him. He came to his senses as another tentacle ripped away his blaster rifle, and he immediately threw his other weapon to the side. "Ranma! Here!" "Wha?" Ranma barely had time to drop his current weapons before he was almost bowled over by the heavy grenade launcher. *Vsht* "Argh!" Ranma shouted out in surprise more than pain as an energy bolt tagged his calf, and rolled to the side before leveling the launcher at the nearest group of enemies. *Kroom!!* The aliens' cries were quickly silenced as the plasma enveloped them, and Ranma fired off another grenade before he leapt up onto the cieling, catching his foot in a thick web of fleshy skin. Firing two more grenades, Ranma annihilated the nearest groups of aliens. Then, with a swift movement of his wrist, a blaster was once again in his hands. *Pshoo!* The red alien let out a ghastly groan as the bolt pierced its head, and it slowly crumbled away even as Rayden stumbled and began to recover. The creature hadn't physically hurt him, but his vision was fuzzy and his thoughts sluggish, as if he had just woken up... "Ray! Are you all-what the?! Ack!" Ranma shouted helplessly as the stringly flesh he had been hanging from wrapped around his waist. "R... Ranma?" Rayden groaned and shook his head, trying to clear it.
Ranma shouted some more, but to no avail as tendrils of what looked like muscle tissue wrapped around his torso and pulled him up into a small tunnel. Gasping desperately, the pirate captain was finally ejected from the tunnel quite roughly, and tumbled across the wet floor as he tried to get his breath back. Coughing slightly, Ranma quickly stood up to assess where he was. And he stared. He was in a large, spherical room, with nerves stretched out along the walls. These nerve strands all originated from a massive cluster of glowing cells in the center of the room, suspended in midair by strange- looking, organic cords that crackled with electricity. "What is all this?" He asked no one in particular. He didn't expect to be answered, and so it was understandably surprising when light poured out of his chest pocket, where he had put the crystal from earlier. 'You... the destroyer... see us...' Ranma stared hard at the pulsing mass in front of him. "You're like the brains of all this... you're the one behind this!" 'Behind... attack... attack necessary... destruction necessary... need is great...' "Need!" Ranma growled, "Need for what?!" 'Need... survival... power... revenge...' Ranma snarled, but said nothing. 'You understand... more than you realize... you too... I see...' "You see what?! Get out of my head!" 'Understand... further... see... like we do...' Ranma winced as a sudden whine filled the air and seemed to cut through his senses. He staggered forward, and then almost collapsed as images filled his head. 'Pain...' images of torture, experimentation. 'Suffering...' images of struggling aliens as they fought in inhuman condition for survival. 'Fear...' unknown attackers, ripping them to shreds. 'Annihilation...' a... creature... growling as it feeds upon the slain. 'See us... unguru, psion, darshu... we are the Krell...' Ranma fell to his knees in the puddle of neural enzymes, clutching his head with one hand as images filled his mind. 'See us... help us... the pain... revenge...' "Look, don't think I'm not sympathetic or anything..." Ranma slowly stood up, his knees wobbly, gripping the strange alien crystal tightly in his hand. "But......... no." and then, applying a bit more pressure, shattered it completely. Then he brought up Rayden's grenade launcher, and pulled the trigger. *Krooom!!* Even without the crystal creating a link between him and the mind of the ship, Ranma could still feel the depth of the monstrous creature's cry as it died, and was again knocked off his feet as a massive psychic backlash rushed out of the central nervous core.
"*Groan* Oh man, what a rush." Ranma stood up, and looked at the walls. He noted with a mix of satisfaction and nervousness that they were starting to dry up and crack, like rotting skin. "Well, I guess it's time I made my exit." And with that, he picked a tunnel, and ran.
*************************************************************************** *******
End Chapter 9
Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own anything from Ranma 1/2 or Star Wars. Both are far greater than I and my little computer could hope to accomplish.
Chapter 9 Death Seed *************************************************************************** *******
*Rac, do a full systems check. We're moving in.* Ranma's voice poured in over the communications systems, and a screen popped up that placed the positions of the Ion Storm and Dark Angel in reference to the Wild Horse. Back on the two fighters, Rac appeared on the communications display as he read off the functional systems. *TURBOLASER SYSTEMS ONLINE. CANNONS 4 AND 7 OPERATIONAL, THOUGH THEY CAN ONLY FIRE AT 45% POWER WITHIN STANDARD SAFETEY PARAMETERES. ALL MODIFICATIONS COMPLETE AND READY. TACHYON ACCELERATOR AND SPECTRUM FLUX GENERATOR OPERATIONAL.* Ranma nodded from within his fighter. "Good. Rayden, you all right?" *Roger. Let's do this.* "All right then. Maintain current speed to the target area, then break off to attack. I'll handle the fighters until you've got the shields down on the target." *Gotcha boss. Moving to attack position.*
Katrina sighed as the Wild Horse pulled away from the sensor shadow of Ryloth's second moon, its two fighters flanking on either side. She had been trapped within the Wild Horse for four days, and though she hadn't been locked up, everyone but Ranma had her under tight surveillance. Still, she didn't want to miss the first bit of action she'd have since boarding the vessel, so she found a seat in the bridge and watched as Arak talked to Yuri over a holographic projection of the engagement area. "So you see, at this point we're going to engage the target directly. I'll inform you when we get close enough. Then it's all up to you." Yuri nodded a bit nervously, and Arak kicked away from the holographic display table, his chair rolling up to the diagnostics control panel. "What exactly are we doing here?" Katrina ventured. "Just a little business trip. Nothing too bad," Arak ceded. "Just stay out of the way, would you?" Katrina glared at him, but after a few moments her stare lost its intensity. Looking at one of the sensor readouts, she noticed that the small group of pirate craft was approaching a larger group of small capital ships. "APPROACHING PASSIVE SENSOR RANGE. WE HAVE BEEN DETECTED. ONE OF THE FRIGATES IS HAILING US." Arak stood up, then cleared his throat. "Patch us through. Audio only." *-will not tolerate any unprovoked offensive action! Power down your shields and weapons systems and prepare to be boarded!* Arak laughed. "Give me a break. If that's all sir, prepare to defend yourselves. Rac, cut off communications. Good. Feed power to the ion cannons and heavy ion relays. Pick some targets and prepare to fire. Disable all but the target vessel." "AFFIRMATIVE. TARGETS LOCKED. MOVING INTO ATTACK POSITION." Rayden's voice floated suddenly from the comm station. *The black sun sets. Night is coming.* Yuri and Katrina appeared startled, but Arak nodded somberly. "All systems armed and ready. Fire." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Sir! The Wild Horse is approaching!" The sensor tech looked nervously at the captain, being aware of the light frigate's reputation in combat. The captain scratched his chin as the bridge officers awaited their orders. "Strange. The freighter port is in the other direction. Why would they be attacking a diplomatic convoy?" The captain knew that Mal Ta'ern was worried about being killed by the pirates that were supposedly based in a massive asteroid belt several parsecs away, but he didn't really think there was anything to it. "What's all the commotion around here?" Speak of the devil. The Twi'lek captain's brain tails twitched slightly as their diplomatic cargo walked on the bridge. "Sir, a pirate ship has just appeared, and is commencing an attack. We are at full alert, I suggest you return to your quarters." "I knew it!" The senator cried, much to the captain's chagrin. "I knew it all along! They're trying to kill me! They know that I could have them destroyed, so they're trying to kill me!" The captain sighed. "Yes, well, we're here to make sure they don't succeed, so if you would just-" "Sir! Fighter 2, designation Dark Angel has just broken through our defensive line!" "Increase forward firepower! Take down that ship!" The captain demanded. "Affirmative sir! The first fighter is engaging our fighters..." the tech trailed off. "Yes? And?" The captain snapped, wondering why the man had stopped. "It's using its ion cannons. It's disabling each ship." The captain puzzled over this for a moment, until the tech once again shouted. "The Dark Angel is firing on us!" "Sir, we will take care of this. Please return to your quarters." The captain turned away from Mal Ta'ern, and then grit his teeth as the senator shouted in surprise. "What are those?! What are they doing to the shields?" "Captain, we have impact! Shield power at 82% and dropping fast!" "Tell the other ships to close in and try to box the fighter in with laser fire. Where's the rest of the fleet?" "More of our fighters incoming! Ion Storm is engaging!" "The Wild Horse is closing fast! They're firing on the gunships! Ion cannons only!" "This is it... my final hour..." "Sir, would you PLEASE return to your quarters?!" ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
Blue, yellow, and orange fire tore at the small capital ship like an acid, sucking away the shields. Rayden would've laughed if he wasn't busy trying to stay alive. The black, spidery form of the Dark Angel zipped through space as lances of energy slashed to all sides of it. "Hey Arak, how about a little fire support here?" Rayden rolled to one side and cut his speed, and two New Republic X-Wings cut through, raking laser fire. "If we're gonna pull this off, we'd better hurry!" Rayden accelerated once again, barely avoiding a turbolaser blast that drained his shield power, and launched another two plasma grenades that slowly arced over to the Corellian gunship and detonated.
The Wild Horse finally entered the battle area, and found itself immediately subjected to heavy laser fire from many disgruntled gunners who were tired of trying to hit the fighters that were causing such a fuss. On the "neck" of the deceptively powerful craft, twin mandibles started opening up, revealing two giant barrels surrounded by cables and wires. *THOOOM* With a mighty burst of energy, huge spheres of blue-white ion charges rocketed toward the nearest gunship, leaving trails of sparkling blue motes free-floating through the inky void. The cannons impacted soundlessly, sending blue ribbons of energy crawling across the outer hull of the ship. In moments, the gunship's shield and weapons systems were down, and the ion dampers were overflowing as they tried helplessly to further contain the massive energy flux.
As the gunship tried in vain to restart its fried electronic systems, the Wild Horse turned to the next of the three gunships guarding the Corvette that held the target. They started to branch off in different directions, a good idea since Arak had only built the Ion flux cannons into a straight forward firing arc. The Wild Horse's other ion turrets rained blue lightning through the area, taking out fighter after fighter as they attempted attack runs on the mighty frigate.
The last X-wing in the immediate area shook violently as Ranma's ion cannon played havoc with its drive systems. Unable to maneuver, the fighter was struck by another might bolt and lay dead in space. The Ion Storm veered off, approaching the firefight almost leisurely as the Wild Horse rendered another gunship helpless with a concentrated burst of ion fire. Right next to the Corvette, and firing with a desperate futility at a faint charcoal colored shape outlined by the pure black of space, the final guard ship burned with a beautiful luminescent light as high-pressure plasma scorched its armor. The firing stopped, and the gunship began to move away from the battle, though not heading toward the planet or any of the space stations. Most likely shooting for a break into hyperspace.
Completely alone, the Corvette fired its weapons in wild arcs all around it, to no avail. Huge twin ion bolts blasted into its side, its shields already decimated by the powerful plasma grenades. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
*SHIELDS ARE DOWN. WEAPONS SYSTEMS ARE DOWN. DRIVE SYSTEMS ARE DOWN. THE TARGET IS DEAD IN SPACE.* Rac's electronic voice boomed over the communications link, and Ranma flipped a switch on his console. "All right, here's where the fun begins. All craft, switch over to modified primary weapons systems. Prepare to fire on my mark." *THE TARGET SHIP IS HAILING US.* "Ignore it. Ready?" *I'm gonna enjoy this...* Ranma grinned at Rayden's exuberance. "Fire at will." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Sir! All ships are opening fire!" The tech shouted in panic, then looked to the corridor as if thinking he might make a break for the escape pods. "How long until shields are up?" The captain shouted back, though he knew it was useless. On the floor next to him, Mal Ta'ern clutched his brain tails to himself, gibbering wildly. "Uh, sir?" "What is it?!" The captain snapped. The man was at the station monitering the damage to the ship, and he wasn't particularly in the mood to hear him. The tech winced, then glanced back at his readings. "Sir, I'm reading no damage to hull and armor beyond what we've already sustained from the plasma weapons." The captain blinked. "Yes? So?" "So... the scopes show them firing. Why aren't we taking any damage?" The entire bridge crew sunk into contemplative silence. That is, until the Ion Storm buzzed the bridge, blasting away as it sped past. The bridge crew sweatdropped collectively as huge patches of yellow and green splattered onto the main window of the bridge. Mal Ta'ern stood up slowly. "What the HELL is that?!" One of the techs looked at him dubiously. "It's... um... paint, Senator. They're shooting paint at us." "Really tacky colors too," one of the other techs added. Understandably confused, the senator turned to talk to the captain, only to see that the man was leaning heavily on the railing, holding his face in his hand. "I don't believe this. I don't believe this at all." He turned around, and the senator started. "Hey! Where are you going?" "To my quarters!" The Twi'lek captain snapped. "I've just been brought to the brink of destruction and then had my ship assaulted with paintball guns! I'm going to get some rest before I get demoted or shot!" He then turned toward the crew. "You've all got the rest of the attack off. Go sleep or something." The various people in the bridge looked at each other. "Sir, what if the pirates fire with real weapons?" "You think we could stop them?" The captain countered, and left into the hall.
Outside, the Dark Angel made a run on the bridge, covering the yellow and green spots with blue and off-white. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
Katrina stared listlessly as the turbolaser turrets pounded massive volumes of paint onto the target, giving it a rather awful color scheme of pink, dark orange, and swamp mud brown. "Uhm... this is probably a stupid question, but... why?" Arak nodded. "You're right. That is a stupid question. Yuri, you're on!" Yuri smiled, then hit some keys at her firing station, which attracted Katrina's interest. What was the girl doing? Yuri took hold the joystick, then moved the targeting reticle that appeared on her viewscreen onto the beleaguered Corvette. With the press of a button, the bright yellow beam of the hyper laser seared into the unprotected (though very well coated) hull of the Corvette. Arak watched for a few moments as the beam cut a few circles and made a few odd symbols that looked like bubbles. "What is that?" "IT IS A VERY PREVALENT DIALECT OF MON CALAMARI. IT SAYS 'THE KNIGHTS OF THE DARK MOON WERE HERE'. THOUGH IT IS MISSPELLED." Yuri blushed as Arak and Katrina sweatdropped. "Misspelled? Are you sure?" "ADD A HALF CIRCLE TO THE RIGHT OF THE THIRD SYMBOL. A LITTLE HIGHER." "Well, it's... creative," Arak mumbled. "Rac, what's the ETA on the Ryloth defense fleet?" "THE FLEET IS MOVING INTO ATTACK POSITION EVEN AS WE SPEAK. THEY WILL BE WITHIN FIRING RANGE SOON. I SUGGEST AN IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL." "Agreed." Arak hit a few keys at the communications station, and a link with Ranma's fighter was opened. "Ranma, the job's done and the recording's finished. I suggest we-" "WARNING!! SEVERAL UNKNOWN VESSELS EXITING HYPERSPACE!!" Arak started, and Yuri and Katrina looked at him in worry. "What? Who..." "I.D. CONFIRMED. TWO LANCER FRIGATES, WEB AND NEEDLE CONFIRMED. STRIKE CRUISER STEEL HAWK CONFIRMED. SHADE COMMAND HEAVY CRUISER TITAN CONFIRMED. ALL SHIPS ARE ON AN INTERCEPT COURSE WITH THE WILD HORSE." Arak gulped. "Ranma, you getting this?" *Yeah. Damn, I didn't think Rehli would follow us so quickly. Rayden, form up on me!* Yuri scooted over to the comm station and looked at the fast approaching group of ships. "Can't you just blast your way through them?" Katrina stared at the green-haired girl like she was stupid. Arak just sighed. "Well, we might stand a chance of doing that... if we hadn't converted all the laser cannons into paintball guns." Yuri sweatdropped. She'd forgotten about that. "We could try and fight our way through with the Apocolypse Cannon, our ion cannons, and the launchers as our only active weapons, but even if we managed to put forward enough power to bust through, the Ryloth fleet would take us apart from behind. We're stuck." Now Katrina started to look scared. "Well, don't you have some sort of plan?" Arak smiled ruefully. "Of course! I always have a plan!" Then he put his feet up on the comm console and leaned back in his chair. "I plan to wait here and let Ranma deal with it when he gets back." Katrina kicked the bottom of the chair, and Arak cried out as he toppled backward. "This is no time for jokes! We've got to do something!" Katrina growled, and then yelped as she felt a metal rod poke into her back. Turning around, she smiled nervously as one of Rac's floating drones retracted a manipulator arm. "MAY I REMIND YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT A COMPONENT OF THIS CREW, MISS CLOUD? IF YOU CANNOT KEEP YOURSELF FROM INTERFERING IN OUR AFFAIRS, I CAN EASILY HAVE SHIKODAN INSTALL A LOCK ON YOUR QUARTERS." Katrina would have retorted with something sharp and witty, but was uncomfortably aware of the multitude of autoguns that the ship's computer controlled all around the Wild Horse's interior. Off to the side, Yuri let a smug smirk cross her face before she started worrying about their imminent deaths again. "So how long before they reach us?" "THE RYLOTH DEFENSE FLEET HAS SLOWED DOWN TO A CRAWL DUE TO OUR FRIENDS FROM SHADE, THOUGH IT SEEMS THEY ARE INTENT ON INTERCEPTING THE CORVETTE. THEY WILL AVOID ENGAGING US HEAD-ON IF THEY CAN, AND WILL REACH FIRING RANGE IN TWO MINUTES. THE SHADE FLEET IS MOVING MORE SWIFTLY, BUT AT THEIR HYPERSPACE VECTOR IT WILL BE EIGHT MINUTES BEFORE THEY ARE WITHIN FIRING RANGE. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY ARE APPROACHING THE NEAREST EXIT INTO HYPERSPACE AS WELL." The drone shined its red sensor light in her eyes for a moment, and Yuri flinched nervously. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS?" "How about cloaking and sneaking by them?" She ventured slowly. Arak shook his head. "Won't work. They know we're here, and they'll know when we'll cloak. Their scanners are good enough that we won't be able to sneak by that closely without being detected. And if they open fire while power is diverted to the spectrum flux generator..." Arak trailed off, shaking his head. "We can't sneak by them, but we can sneak away from them." Yuri twirled around at the voice, and felt an odd sense of relief as Ranma stepped in, removing his flight gloves. "Rac," he continued, "put up the cloaking field, then move to sector 81.90 at a slow pace to minimize ion emissions." Arak blinked. "But... that'll put us right between the two fleets and the moon's gravity shadow. If someone finds us, we're dead!" Ranma grinned. "Then we'll have to make sure they don't find us, won't we?" Katrina shook her head. "But where else will they look? They'll know we didn't sneak by them, and they'll know we didn't sneak by the Twi'lek fleet..." Before Rac's drone could pull out its taser, Ranma answered her, instantly making the question a valid one. "Oh, will they? Rac, send out a probe, emitting minor ion emissions as it travels on a path through Ryloth's defense fleet. Move into orbit around the moon and prepare to make a break for it after the two fleets engage each other." Rayden walked up behind him, staring at the holographic display. "Will that work?" Ranma shrugged. "I don't know. But it couldn't hurt to try, right?" Arak slapped his forehead. "Yes, it could." "LAUNCHING PROBE. PROBE IS AWAY. PRAYING..." Everyone blinked at that. "You have a pray function?" Rayden asked, surprised. "NO, BUT IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE." Arak groaned. "I do NOT need this right now..." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Admiral, we have reached the Senator's ship. Orders?" The young admiral of the Ryloth defense fleet stared irritably at the video screen on his bridge. How could one pirate ship cause so much trouble? "Recover the senator and restart the ship's systems; I want that Corvette repaired. And scratch that rubbish off the side! What is that, anyway?" "It's Mon Calamari, sir. It says 'The Knights of the Dark Moon were here'." "What the hell does that mean?" "I've no idea." The admiral snorted, and his brain tails twitched. "Well, what do they have to say for themselves?" The holograph sweatdropped slightly. "Well, they, uh, didn't answer any of our hails..." "What?! Why not?" "Well... our scans show that they've all been released to their quarters. It's very odd..." The admiral shook his head. "I'll speak to the captain personally later." Without another word, the admiral terminated the communications signal and turned toward his subordinate. "What's the status on the other fleet?" "They're approaching at top speed, admiral. Our sensors are reading full power long range scans. It appears they're looking for the Wild Horse." "Well, then we have a similar goal, at least. Still, they're approaching far too quickly for my taste. Identification?" "We have a Steel Hawk, Titan, Web, and Needle. None of those are on any New Republic roster... Scanning a list of all known Imperial remnant fleets... nope. Let's try a more comprehensive search..." "Where does someone other than an Imperial warlord find heavy cruisers and Lancer frigates? These aren't exactly common craft we're dealing with." "Sir! I found one of them! 'Steel Hawk' was a ship that fought its way through the Galactic Police orbiting Keeryu just a few weeks ago! Unknown origin and allegiance, but I'd make a bet they're not the friendly type." "Acknowledged. If this scum thinks he can just march right through MY planet, he's very badly mistaken." "Admiral! We're being hailed from the Titan!" The admiral grimaced as he turned once again to the viewscreen. "Put it through!" He was rather surprised when a picture of a blue-skinned man appeared on the screen. All the ships but the Titan were known Imperial designs, and even the Titan itself looked vaguely Imperial. The Imperials were known for many things, among them their dislike of non-humans. The man stared at him in stoic silence, before speaking in a cold, firm tone. "I assume by those ornaments on your chest that you're in charge here, so let's make one thing clear: I'm here for the Wild Horse and the Wild Horse only. I will destroy it, and then leave." The admiral raised an eyebrow. "Oh! And what would your name be, sir?" The blue man scowled. "My name is of no concern to you. Either destroy the Wild Horse, or allow my fleet to destroy it. That will conclude my business here and I will be on my way." The admiral scoffed. "Well, feel free to destroy the man if you wish, but stay away from Ryloth. I don't care who you are or what grudge you have with those pirates, but I will allow neither to threaten MY planet." Boran looked off-screen for a moment, then his face glared hard at the Twi'lek. "He's moving through YOUR fleet even as we speak!" The admiral blinked, and his features hardened. "Really? And what, exactly, would make you think that? Last I heard the ship was cloaked, and I know you couldn't detect it from your position even if it were here." "I could detect the ion emissions from the asteroid belt if I had to! They must have a damaged engine! They're moving right through you!" Boran snapped. His patience with this Twi'lek fool was growing thin. The admiral turned to one of his tech officers, who pointed at his screen and then shrugged helplessly. Then he turned back to the fuming Shade operative. "Those emissions are originating from a probe that was shot through our fleet. It's a harmless science probe without a propulsion system. The Wild Horse is nowhere near us." Boran snarled at him, and then, without another word, cut the link.
"Admiral! The fleet is still advancing! They'll be within firing range in 6 minutes!" The admiral nodded. The blue fellow obviously wasn't a lawman, or he'd have handled the situation better. And this admiral in particular had no love for rogue commanders with large Imperial craft at their beck and call. "All craft, prepare to intercept the two Lancer frigates on my mark. When they're occupied, launch our fighters. And move the Senator and his ship to the planet! I want no civilian casualties!" "Right away admiral!" ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Rehli, sir, are you sure about this? I mean, they said it was just a probe..." Several of the men of the bridge crew stared at their captain and admiral questioningly. Boran chuckled to himself, and shook his head as if the question was childish. "You don't understand. Not surprising, really." Boran straightened, then gestured with his hand. "It's very simple. A ruse. Saotome shoots the probe, and it's dismissed as harmless, or a distraction. Meanwhile, he follows behind it, and his own engine emissions are dismissed as the probe's!" The entire bridge crew let out an "Ah..." of understanding. Boran grinned. "Saotome is too clever for his own good. These fools will pay the price for their idiocy! Scramble all fighters! Onward!" "Yes sir!" ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
Katrina watched in disbelief as the holographic display table zoomed in on the battle, showing the little laser bolts as the ships came within range of each other and started firing. "Hey, can we get some better resolution here?" Rayden shouted. Instantly the picture seemed to solidify and become clearer. *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* Katrina, still quite confused, stared at Ranma incredulously. Ranma noticed her stare. "I'm sorry, did you want some?" He raised the bag of popcorn to her, but she didn't do much other than gape, so Yuri took some instead. "Ooh, nice move with the light cruiser. That'll give Rehli something to worry about." "Hey look! The Lancer's trying to go around!" "Captain must not be too bright. He'll get cut to pieces by those Corvettes." "Is that an A-wing group on the left, or are those Headhunters?" "A-WINGS. THE GROUP IN SECTOR 78.03 ARE HEADHUNTERS." "This is so cool!" Yuri said, swallowing her popcorn and leaning forward to observe the firefight more closely. "Who do you think will win?" Ranma shrugged. "I dunno. Rehli's trying to break through, not annihilate the fleet, so he'll probably survive, but I doubt he can 'win'." "THIS IS CORRECT. STRATEGICALLY, ADMIRAL REHLI IS OUTGUNNED, BUT THE TWI'LEK FLEET IS TOO UNDERPOWERED TO STOP HIM IF HE WERE TO TRY AND ESCAPE. ONCE HE REALIZES THAT WE ARE NO LONGER A VIABLE TARGET, HE WILL ORDER HIS SHIPS TO RETREAT TO HYPERSPACE. THE TWI'LEK FLEET WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP HIM." Yuri and the space pirates nodded in understanding, while Katrina stared, still mesmerized. Ranma tossed the empty popcorn bag behind him and stood up. "Well, it's about time we blew this joint. Rac, move us into the nearest hyperspace vector. Top speed." "AFFIRMATIVE."
As Rayden and Arak moved to different stations on the oversized bridge, Ranma turned to Katrina. "So, Miss... Cloud, was it? We never really got to talk before, and seeing how we're making a dangerous escape from certain death at the moment, I figure we have some time to get to know each other." Katrina stared at him incredulously and started stuttering. Behind him, Yuri frowned ever so slightly as she eavesdropped. Ranma shook his head as he watched Katrina fall into a nervous silence. "This is about you trying to kill me, isn't it?" She gulped, then nodded slightly. "Aw, don't worry about it. You were just trying to murder someone to make a little cash. I respect that. Sort of. Well, anyway, that's all behind us, so tell me a little about yourself. How did a Jedi get to be a bounty hunter anyway?" This seemed to startle the other members of the crew out of their own activities. Katrina muttered something darkly, but Ranma couldn't hear it. Rayden whirled on her immediately. "You're a JEDI?!" Katrina nodded miserably. "Whoa! Can you do that thing where you choke them without touching them?" She blinked. "What?" "You know, like this." Rayden raised his hand toward Arak, and made a gesture as if he was gripping something in his hand. "Hey! Don't give her any ideas!" Arak shouted nervously. "Look, I can't-" Katrina was cut off before Rayden grabbed her by the shoulder. "C'mon! Try it! Use Arak!" "Hey! Leave me alone!" Katrina turned to Ranma helplessly. He noticed, and shrugged. "Actually, I kinda want to see you do that choking thing too." Katrina sweatdropped, then shook herself out of Rayden's grip. "Look... it's kind of a sore point with me, but... I'm not a real Jedi." There was a moment of silence. "Oh. Nevermind then." Rayden went back to his regular chair and began looking at the ship's readouts. Arak likewise lost interest and checked the ship's heading. Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Not a Jedi? You have the weapon, and that wasn't a rough breeze pushing me around in that hangar." Katrina sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I can use the force, but I... didn't make it to Jedi." "Have you ever met Luke Skywalker?" Yuri interrupted, genuinely curious. The man was the galaxy's #1 celebrity, after all. Katrina rolled her eyes. "Yes, I've met him. He's a pretty nice guy too." "But..." Ranma prompted. The young woman sighed again. "BUT, after several months into my training, he said I was very talented, but I couldn't control my emotions." Ranma blinked. "'Temper tantrums' he called them. Hmph. Well, I sort of got angry at him when he said that he was considering cutting my training, and that was the end of that." She folded her arms under her prominent chest, fuming silently. Ranma nodded somberly. "That sounds pretty bad. Sorry to hear that. Anyway, once we get back to Gor-" "WARNING! INCOMING HYPERSPACE SIGNALS!" Ranma looked startled, and stood up suddenly. "What?" "THERE ARE A HOST OF STARSHIPS EXITING HYPERSPACE AT RANDOM POINTS BETWEEN OUR ENTRY VECTOR AND THE PLANET." Arak pushed a few buttons on his console. "What kind of ships?" he mumbled. "The energy signatures are odd, I can't-" his eyes widened. Rayden stared as the craft made their exits. "Aw, HELL no..." Yuri gasped, and unconsciously grabbed onto Ranma's arm. "Those... those are the same ships that attacked Morcan!" Ranma massaged his head. "I don't believe this. Of all the places, of all the times... *sigh*"
The others watched in horror as the small oval ships appeared all around them, all converging on the heated firefight taking place above the planet. Small globules popped off the bellies of the little destroyers, and the fighters scattered out in a giant web.
Ranma stared hard at the displays. All the smaller ships were coming in between them and the planet, or off to the side, meaning that he still had a clear path into his hyperspace vector. This wasn't like Morcan; he had no reason to stick around and help this time. As long as none of the ships-
"WARNING! HYPERSPACE EXIT DEAD AHEAD!" -exited between him and the edge of the gravity well. Damn it. Out it came. Huge and bulbous, volcanic red laced with black, with clear, pointed crystals marking its bulging mass in small clusters. Headed right toward them. "Rac! Hard to port! Now!" Ranma shouted, and all heard the groan of metal creaking as the engines struggled to bring the Wild Horse around. Yuri gulped and looked up at Ranma, still attached to his arm. "They can't see us, right? We're cloaked!" "They shouldn't be able to-" "WARNING! ENEMY WEAPON SIGNATURE DETECTED!" Ranma didn't finish his sentence. "......... We're all gonna die." Katrina stared at him, terrified, as Arak panicked over his readouts. "I'm getting a mass of energy readings! They can tell we're here! They're firing!" Yuri watched as the bright pinnacles of energy blasted forth from the crystals, meeting no shields and being absorbed into the cloaked frigate instantly. Rayden turned solemnly to his captain. "Ranma, I've never told you this before, but I was always proud to fight for you." Ranma blinked at him, the sudden admission distracting his path of thought. "Huh?" "I'm serious. If it weren't for you, I would be nothing, just some drone out killing people on somebody else's whim. You always treated me like a person, and it's more than I deserve. If I have to go, I'm glad I'll go by your side." Rayden's face was hard and serious. "Wow. That's so... touching." Katrina admitted. A pirate inspired this kind of thing in his crew? Ranma didn't really know what to say. "I... well... thanks, man... you've been like a brother to me." "Arak!" Yuri's voice startled the scientist out of his feverish study of the ship's scanner readings, and he turned to face her. "Don't you have anything like that to say?" "No, I think I'd rather just live." Arak deadpanned. Ranma blinked as he thought of something. "Speaking of living, why hasn't that thing shot us yet? We should be toast by now." "THAT'S what I'm trying to figure out!" Arak yelled. "We've been tagged, but they're not shooting! They're actually heading straight for us!" Ranma looked startled at that. "What's weird is that we're emitting two similar, but different energy signatures. One is from the tagging node, but the other... all I've been able to figure out is that it's reacting with the tagging blast somehow."
As the others erupted into awkward panic and discussion, Ranma detached himself from Yuri's grip and sat down. A second energy signature? Surely it couldn't be a natural resonance from some of the equipment, or Rac would have pinpointed it. He idly glanced down the hallway, then stared. A bright, multicolored light was pouring out of the cracks of his door. Without another thought, he bolted for the hallway, unnoticed by those still on the bridge. Opening his door cautiously, Ranma had to cover his eyes to keep from being blinded as the full intensity of the rays hit him. Allowing a few moments for his eyes to adjust, he peeked through his fingers to see that the throbbing shine was coming from the crystal he had set on his dresser; the same crystal he had found in that crooked salesman's stash back on Gorgon's Moon. Cautiously stepping forward, and with his hand still shading his eyes, he gently picked it up. The light stopped the moment he touched it. 'Death...' a gentle echo seemed to float on a breeze that wasn't there, and Ranma twirled around, trying to find the source of the voice. 'Death is life. Destroyer... one of us? Destroyer help? To live, we kill...' Ranma groaned and fell to his knees on the floor, and a computer monitor slipped out of the ceiling. "I REALIZE THE IDIOCY OF THIS QUESTION IN OUR CURRENT SITUATION, BUT ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" 'Come to us, destroyer. Will you help? Help us kill? Killing is survival...' "Rac, what's going on with the ship?" Ranma desperately tried to push the voice away from him, even as he refused to let go of the crystal clutched in his right hand. "IMPACT IS UNAVOIDABLE, UNLESS THE ALIEN CRAFT STOPS OR CHANGES DIRECTION. IMPACT IS IN 40 SECONDS." 'Help us, destroyer... please... help... the key... the key to death... the ruins...' "Argh!" Ranma fell down once again, putting a hand to his head even as the crystal started glowing again. "IMPACT IN 30 SECONDS." 'Who are you?' Ranma thought, 'What are you?' "25 SECONDS." The breeze returned, but with no words for him. '....................' "20 SECONDS." 'Why must you kill? Why are you doing this?' Ranma thought, hoping he was reaching the other end of this weird communication. That was how this telepathy garbage usually worked, right? "15 SECONDS. THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME ACTIVITY WITHIN THE ALIEN SHIP." 'We kill... to survive...' "10 SECONDS TO IMPACT. IT APPEARS THE ALIEN SHIP IS FLUXUATING SOMEWHAT." 'What are we... does not matter... what were we... mattered once... what will become of us... is all there is now...' "3, 2, 1. IMPACT." ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"What the blazes is that thing?!" Boran shouted as he pulled his ships away from what had been a major firefight just moments before. Out in the rubble-strewn space, the blasted hull of a Lancer frigate floated away freely, along with the scorched remains of two Corellian Corvettes. All ships had somehow fallen under an uneasy cease-fire, and the Shade forces had obviously shown their intention to leave before a strange fleet could cut into their lines of defense. The Ryloth defense fleet, while thankful that they didn't have to spend any more time and men fighting off the surprisingly efficient criminal forces, was still plenty steamed that they had to push off a small fleet just to engage a strange new one.
"Admiral Rehli sir! A transmission from the Steel Hawk! They've located Saotome!" "What?! On-screen!" Terry Orn, captain of the Steel Hawk saluted immediately once the connection was made. "Sir! It appears that Saotome somehow got behind us! I was doing a scan of those strange ships and found a solid energy pulse coming from an empty region of space directly in front of the large cruiser!" "Wow, I guess he wasn't that clever," one of the techs muttered, to be silenced by a glare from the admiral. "Get me a picture of that region!" Boran shouted. In moments, a second picture appeared on the large viewing screen, this one showing the bulbous front of the alien battlecruiser. Boran's eye twitched as he caught a flicker of light sweep across some sort of field roughly in the shape of an egg just meters in front of the advancing vessel. "That's them all right. I don't know what that ship did to them, but..." he turned around to address his crew, his eyes cold and hard. "Tell all surviving ships to enter hyperspace, moving away from the alien fleet if possible. Destroy anything that gets in the way, otherwise just move." "Sir, what about the escape pods from the Lan-" "The captain deserves whatever's coming to him for doing something so stupid like that. Move out!" "Uh, sir," Terry got Boran's attention once again, looking somewhat subdued. "Shouldn't we go get Saotome?" Boran shook his head. "Do not engage those craft unless you have to!" He looked up at the display before him and smirked. "Besides, Saotome's not going anywhere." The entire crew of the Titan watched in smug delight as the flickering stealth field of the Wild Horse shorted out upon impact with the alien cruiser. That delight turned to some confusion as the light frigate seemed to sink into the fleshy hull of the vessel. "This is the end, Saotome. It was fun while it lasted." With a cruel laugh, Boran shut down the link to the Steel Hawk, and set his route into the depths of space. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Okay, what the HELL just happened?!" Rayden shouted irritably. Looking out the bridge window, he could see a pink, fleshy tunnel passing by, with strings of... stuff hanging down everywhere. It looked like something from an autopsy tape. Arak was no less confused. "Er... I think it... absorbed us." Yuri looked around nervously. Where did Ranma go? "So now what?" "I..." Arak looked about a bit, his face flushed, "I really don't know." "Well, can we blast ourselves out?" Ranma's voice was a welcome addition to the gathered men and women, and Arak thought it over. "We probably could, but we'd be at the mercy of the crystals outside. I'd really have to know why this thing absorbed us in the first place." Ranma shook his head. "Well, then it looks like we'll have to do this the hard way. Rayden, you're with me. Rac, send a drone with us and keep units 01 and 02 on full alert. Arak, you take care of the girls, all right?" Arak blinked as his two companions shuffled out of the bridge, followed by a black, hovering sphere. Then he turned to the two young women still in the bridge, and chuckled nervously. "YOU'RE supposed to protect US?" Katrina asked blandly. "Well, thank goodness Rac's here." Yuri added. Arak sweatdropped, then turned back to the console in front of him. "I'm reading additional ships coming out of hyperspace... hmmmm... this one is an exact match for the one we blasted at Morcan. Here's another big one." Yuri quickly tired of hearing Arak speculate about how many enemies there were. "I'm worried about Ranma. Is there any way we can check up on him?" Arak sighed and rolled his eyes. "Ranma this, Ranma that, Ranma, Ranma, Ranma," he muttered just loud enough for the others to hear as he toyed with some controls. In moments, a screen appeared that showed Ranma and Rayden's backs as they walked slowly through the tunnels of flesh and slime. "This is a video uplink to the drone Rac's got out there. You can communicate with them as well, but I wouldn't bother them if-" something distracted him for a moment, and he looked over at one of the scanners. "Uhm, Rac, how long have those things been advancing on us?" "NOT VERY LONG. WHY?" "Crud. What are they?" "I'D ASSUME ENEMY TROOPS OF SOME KIND. SHOULD I BRING THE TURBOLASER BATTERIES ONLINE?" Arak looked around nervously, but saw that the girls were engrossed in watching his companions playing "commando". "Yeah, that'd be a good idea. Bring up shields too." "WITH THE CURRENT MASS DISPLACEMENT ALL AROUND THE WILD HORSE, THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE." "Oh... well... blast them before they get too close, all right?" "AFFIRMATIVE... *Beep* SOMETHING IS WRONG. THERE IS ACTIVITY DIRECTLY BELOW US." Yuri tore her eyes away from the screen long enough to panic. "What? What do you mean?" "SOME SORT OF APPARATUS HAS ATTACHED ITSELF TO EACH OF THE TURBOLASER BATTERIES. IT IS SIPHONING OFF ALL POWER." "What?!" Arak shouted. "No way! Call Ranma and-" *Look out! I saw something!* The whining sound of the aliens' unique blasters filled the speakers as the viewscreen showed the beginning of a long firefight. "IT WOULD APPEAR THAT RANMA IS CURRENTLY PREOCCUPIED WITH OTHER THINGS. *Beep* WARNING! AN ENEMY UNIT HAS BREACHED THE HULL!" "What? What's going on?!" Katrina stood up and her eyes darted around nervously. Arak turned to a damage display console and frowned. "Are you sure? I'm not reading any damage to the-" Yuri gasped as a red tentacle creeped out of the floor, and began to slither toward Arak. "Look out!" *Zhoo* *Vwoosh* The lightsaber took the tentacle off in a single stroke, and Katrina backed up into a guard position as two more tentacles phased out of the floor. Arak ushered Yuri away, and all three of them watched as a head and torso followed the tentacles onto the bridge. *Bzzt!* A hatch opened on the cieling, and an autogun popped out. *Rattattattatta!* The alien seemed to... groan desperately as the bullets tore it apart, and its arms seemed to shrivel into nothing before being followed by the rest of its body. The humans let out a breath of relief. "*Beep* WARNING! MULTIPLE UNITS HAVE ENTERED THE SHIP! SEVERAL UNITS ARE ALSO TRYING TO BLAST OPEN THE ENTRY HATCH." Arak blinked. "What? Why? Can't they just phase through it?" "NEGATIVE. I'M READING A DIFFERENT ENERGY MAKEUP FROM THE UNITS THAT ARE ENTERING THE SHIP FROM BELOW." Arak squeaked as several more tentacles floated up through the various consoles, the lights flickering as the energy flows shifted. Then he found himself yanked back into the hallway and away from the bridge. Turning around, he saw Yuri leading the way further into the ship, while the hum of Katrina's light saber was evident from behind him. "We've got to get out of here! Rac, get those robots down here and clear the path in front of the entry hatch!" "IMMEDIATELY." The sound of metal grinding upon metal echoed through the passageways of the ship as the two combat drones slipped out of their power cradles. Arak gaped. "But... we can't! There's more of them out there!" Yuri shook her head. "This place is a death trap! If they can move right through the walls, we have a better chance out in the open!" "MISS XERO IS CORRECT. THE GENERATORS CAN ONLY PROVIDE 8 MORE MINUTES OF POWER FOR THE INTERNAL DEFENSES UNLESS THE SIPHONS ARE DISABLED." As if to emphasize that point, spurts of gunfire were heard from the door separating the hallway from the bridge. Yuri nodded. "Katrina, get ready to back up the droids. Arak, where are the guns?" Katrina frowned as Arak removed some blaster carbines from a compartment in the wall. "Wait a minute kid. I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not taking orders from some kid who's never been in actual firefight before!" Predictably, the green-haired girl glared at her, and Katrina allowed herself to feel a bit smug before something hard smashed into her back, sending her stumbling across the floor. She whipped her light saber around, but stopped when she saw the bright red sensor visor shining its glaring light in her eyes. "YOU WILL TAKE ORDERS FROM WHOEVER GIVES THEM TO YOU. YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?" Katrina's eye twitched, but one look at Unit 01's glowing energy dampener in the pit of its metal fist was enough to quell her temper. Yuri smiled at the large robot and patted it on the plating covering the tread. "Thank you Rac, now let's get out of here." Units 01 and 02 rolled to the rear of the ship, followed closely by the three humans, the last one muttering about little teenage brats and smart- ass computers. Once they reached the hatch, Arak reached for the opening switch, only to have his arm caught by Yuri. "You can't do that! They're gathered around the hatch!" Arak frowned. "Well, what am I supposed to do? I'm sure the droids can take care of it." "Maybe..." Yuri hesitated. Before Arak could ask just when she was put in charge, she turned to the spherical drone that had followed the combat droids. "Rac, divert all remaining power to the engines!" "WHILE THAT'S A CLEVER SOLUTION TO CLEAR THE REAR OF THE SHIP, THE NORMAL ENGINE EMISSIONS WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH TO-" Arak nodded slowly as Rac went on. "Rac, disable the ion dampeners, fuel regulators, and dispersment arrays. Put all remaining power into engines 2, 4, and 6 in one burst! Now!" "ROGER." *THWOOOM!!!* The ship lurched forward as the engines blasted energy into the alien marines, sending them screeching to their deaths as the hot radiation poured through them like a river. Inside the ship, the lights flickered uncertainly before going dead completely, and Arak hit the switch on the entry hatch, causing a rush of air to nearly suck him outside as the much thinner air in the alien ship attempted to stabilize itself. Unit 01 and 02 lumbered down the exit ramp, their torsos swiveling back and forth in their search for hostiles. 01's sensors picked something up, and it turned to focus on a small group of red aliens that were phasing out of the ship. "HOSTILES IDENTIFIED." *Zshoo!* *Zshoo!* The creatures erected barriers in front of them, only to be totally blown away as the plasma tore through the psychic shields with ease. Arak, Yuri and Katrina came rushing out of the Wild Horse, the former nearly tripping over the charred blue corpses of the strange aliens. A floating black drone followed them, casting its eerie red light over the masses of dead. Yuri turned toward the hovering black drone. "Where's Ranma?" "SAOTOME AND SHIKODAN ARE IN THE LEFT TUNNEL." The sides of the drone popped out suddenly, and small crystal rods flashed red as they rotated around the sphere's axis. "SCANNERS DETECT AN ENEMY REGIMENT BETWEEN THEM AND US. COURSE OF ACTION?" "Well, obviously we should-" *BWOOOM!!!* "SCREEEEEE!!!" The alien soldiers screamed as the fleshy wall of the battlecruiser was ripped apart by a proton bomb, and they were sucked into the vaccuum of space. Yuri screamed as the flow reached her, and she fell down as the pull dragged her across the soft, wet floor of the ship. Arak and Katrina both collapsed onto the ground as well, and gripped any available protrusion as air rushed past them. "FRIENDLY UNIT IS DOWN!" Rac's drone turned toward Yuri, and one of its compartments opened up and shot a grappling hook that clung firmly to her shoulder. This didn't do anything but drag the drone along with her, at least until one of the much heavier combat droids reached out and grabbed the sphere firmly in its claws. Arak watched with fascination as the organic bulkhead opposite the ruined wall seemed to melt, and then reach out to fill in the vaccuous hole. Webs of flimy skin fanned out of nowhere, gripping the wall firmly and melding with it seamlessly. Within moments, the hole had been filled, and their intended passageway was blocked by a wall of stringy flesh. Turning to the wall, he saw huge veins pulsing as various liquids flowed through the living vessel, fueling the ship as it defended itself from Ryloth's guardians.
Yuri got up wearily, and located her blaster that had been caught by some sort of slimy node sticking up out of the ground. Staring at it as she wiped the slime off her weapon, she noted that the head of the node ran into a vein of some sort that pulsed blue with energy. A vein that ended at one of the Wild Horse's turbolaser cannons. Katrina got up and made a disgusted noise as she wiped slime off her bare legs. "Well 'commander'? What now?" Yuri ignored the barb, and stared at the multitude of other veins that had latched onto the Wild Horse and were obviously draining its energy. Then she turned to Arak. "Let's go down the right tunnel. Hurry!" Arak shrugged. "Sure. Whatever. Do I want to live forever?" His darted over to Units 01 and 02, who were already clearing a path through the remaining aliens still coming from the other tunnel. One of the red ones put its hands together, and then thrust them forward, throwing a bolt of blue energy which struck Unit 02 in the shoulder, causing a ripple in the air and several sparks. A moment later that creature was disintigrated. "I have a bad feeling about this..." Arak sighed and followed Yuri. ___________________________________________________________________________ _______
"Rayden! You okay?" Ranma shouted as he ducked behind another node of flesh and swiftly changed battery packs in his blaster. Ducking away, he shot two more alien troopers in the head, then rolled away as the node collapsed before a torrent of blue psionic blasts and yellow energy bolts. "I'm all right!" Rayden ignored the pain in his left shoulder, and leaned away from his own cover to fire his blaster carbine into the crowd of defenders in order to give Ranma some cover. In his injured arm he hefted his grenade launcher, its clip half gone and its damage potential evident from the patches of molten plasma still burning through the ghastly hall of the strange ship. Ranma ducked under another volley, then snatched a blaster in his other hand and fired them both into the crowd, annoyed when he saw his shots mostly blocked by the red ones' energy shields. Flicking a clip on his belt, he holstered his blaster right as he felt a small metal sphere fall into his hand. Flipping on the thermal detonator, he tossed it at the feet of the grouped defenders before backflipping away and hitting the ground. *THOOOM!!!* Rayden grunted as he felt the heat wave rush over him, and then noticed that there were more of the blue aliens coming from where they had come from. He raised his blaster carbine and fired into them, also alerting Ranma to their presence. The pigtailed man rolled away from the initial volley, and began firing into the ground, again with two blasters. The aliens fell quickly, but were quickly backed up. Rayden staggered to what was formerly the front of the ridge that had protected him from enemy fire, and then stumbled forward as red tentacles shot up from the ground and wrapped around his legs and arm. 'Don't fight... just die...' Rayden stopped struggling in shock as the voice echoed in his head, and found himself stunned as the rest of the alien began phasing upward through the fleshy ground beneath him. He came to his senses as another tentacle ripped away his blaster rifle, and he immediately threw his other weapon to the side. "Ranma! Here!" "Wha?" Ranma barely had time to drop his current weapons before he was almost bowled over by the heavy grenade launcher. *Vsht* "Argh!" Ranma shouted out in surprise more than pain as an energy bolt tagged his calf, and rolled to the side before leveling the launcher at the nearest group of enemies. *Kroom!!* The aliens' cries were quickly silenced as the plasma enveloped them, and Ranma fired off another grenade before he leapt up onto the cieling, catching his foot in a thick web of fleshy skin. Firing two more grenades, Ranma annihilated the nearest groups of aliens. Then, with a swift movement of his wrist, a blaster was once again in his hands. *Pshoo!* The red alien let out a ghastly groan as the bolt pierced its head, and it slowly crumbled away even as Rayden stumbled and began to recover. The creature hadn't physically hurt him, but his vision was fuzzy and his thoughts sluggish, as if he had just woken up... "Ray! Are you all-what the?! Ack!" Ranma shouted helplessly as the stringly flesh he had been hanging from wrapped around his waist. "R... Ranma?" Rayden groaned and shook his head, trying to clear it.
Ranma shouted some more, but to no avail as tendrils of what looked like muscle tissue wrapped around his torso and pulled him up into a small tunnel. Gasping desperately, the pirate captain was finally ejected from the tunnel quite roughly, and tumbled across the wet floor as he tried to get his breath back. Coughing slightly, Ranma quickly stood up to assess where he was. And he stared. He was in a large, spherical room, with nerves stretched out along the walls. These nerve strands all originated from a massive cluster of glowing cells in the center of the room, suspended in midair by strange- looking, organic cords that crackled with electricity. "What is all this?" He asked no one in particular. He didn't expect to be answered, and so it was understandably surprising when light poured out of his chest pocket, where he had put the crystal from earlier. 'You... the destroyer... see us...' Ranma stared hard at the pulsing mass in front of him. "You're like the brains of all this... you're the one behind this!" 'Behind... attack... attack necessary... destruction necessary... need is great...' "Need!" Ranma growled, "Need for what?!" 'Need... survival... power... revenge...' Ranma snarled, but said nothing. 'You understand... more than you realize... you too... I see...' "You see what?! Get out of my head!" 'Understand... further... see... like we do...' Ranma winced as a sudden whine filled the air and seemed to cut through his senses. He staggered forward, and then almost collapsed as images filled his head. 'Pain...' images of torture, experimentation. 'Suffering...' images of struggling aliens as they fought in inhuman condition for survival. 'Fear...' unknown attackers, ripping them to shreds. 'Annihilation...' a... creature... growling as it feeds upon the slain. 'See us... unguru, psion, darshu... we are the Krell...' Ranma fell to his knees in the puddle of neural enzymes, clutching his head with one hand as images filled his mind. 'See us... help us... the pain... revenge...' "Look, don't think I'm not sympathetic or anything..." Ranma slowly stood up, his knees wobbly, gripping the strange alien crystal tightly in his hand. "But......... no." and then, applying a bit more pressure, shattered it completely. Then he brought up Rayden's grenade launcher, and pulled the trigger. *Krooom!!* Even without the crystal creating a link between him and the mind of the ship, Ranma could still feel the depth of the monstrous creature's cry as it died, and was again knocked off his feet as a massive psychic backlash rushed out of the central nervous core.
"*Groan* Oh man, what a rush." Ranma stood up, and looked at the walls. He noted with a mix of satisfaction and nervousness that they were starting to dry up and crack, like rotting skin. "Well, I guess it's time I made my exit." And with that, he picked a tunnel, and ran.
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End Chapter 9