Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and
owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is
intended
"Ten minutes to reversion," Jaina stated calmly, although she was really anything, but calm at the moment. She was impatient and angry. Her cousin had been kidnapped from right underneath both she and Mara's respective noses and she could have prevented. She should have fought harder, done more to ensure that Callista wouldn't be walking away from that fight. Callista wouldn't walk away again, she promised herself, not if she or Mara had anything to say about it.
"I want the lasers on-line as soon as we return to realspace," Mara said sharply, "She might have someone waiting for us." When Jaina had first told Mara about Ben's kidnapping, she had been surprised at how calmly her aunt had seemed to take the news. Now she knew better. She had always known of course, that Mara was a fully trained former Imperial assassin. It was simply a well acknowledged fact in her family. During her training she had profited greatly from Mara's extensive knowledge of most forms of combat, but until today she had never really been forced to confront that aspect of Mara's past. Today she had seen why Mara had been respected and even feared by those who had known who she truly was back then. If the person they were chasing had been anyone other than Callista, or if Ben hadn't been kidnapped, Jaina might have even been sorry for her.
The waited in tense silence as the minutes seemed to stretch out into forever. Both women watched as the counter ticked down to zero. Mara easily pulled it back towards her and they felt the familiar sensations of reverting to normal space.
The moment they were out, Jaina moved into action. Before Mara had even said anything, she was already starting scans on the system, and using the navcomputer to find their location. It didn't take her long however, to notice that Mara didn't seem to be paying attention to anything. Instead she was gazing out the view screen, staring out at the stars and the nearby planetary system as if they could tell her something, as if there was something there that Jaina couldn't see.
"Something's not right here," Mara said after a moment, "This whole system seems to be...off somehow."
Jaina didn't answer her for a moment. She had long ago learned to trust Mara's hunches. Mara was well known among the Jedi for her hunches and her intuition. To say that they were incredibly accurate was an understatement. It only took her a moment to find what she was looking for. "She's on the fifth planet in the system," she said quickly, "And she's not alone. I'm reading signs of Vong world forming on several of the other planets." Jaina hesitated for a second as she took note of their position. They were very close in to the Core, much closer than she had been aware that the Vong had made it. If they got out of this the Galactic Alliance command would have to be informed about this new encroachment.
Mara's console started screeching with threat warning's at the same time Jaina saw them. A squadron of skips were launching from the ninth planet in the system. Jaina looked over at Mara. She was the one in charge here. In normal circumstances they would have simply charged headfirst into the situation, but with Ben being held by them, or so they assumed, it was a entirely different story.
Mara didn't hesitate for a second. With a few deft adjustments to her console, the Jade Shadow was screaming towards the fifth planet and the skips. The skips spat molten plasma at them as they danced through the void towards them. Two skips screamed past them and exploded into coral dust as Mara sent the 'Shadow into a flat spin and Jaina simultaneously targeted them, using the ships guns to spit laser fire at them, chewing at their dovin basals defenses until they collapsed.
The 'Shadow rocked as they continued to weave their way through the skips and down towards the surface of the planet. As they went down, they continued to trade fire with the skips, overwhelmed by numbers but leaving coral dust in their wake, more often than not.
"Mara we have to get these skips off of our tail before we get to the planet's surface," Jaina hissed, while continuously spraying fire at the leading skip.
"Well," Mara demanded, "Do you have any suggestion? Because as many of these skips as we vape they just keep replacing them with more!"
Jaina smirked. The very first squadron she had ever joined was Rogue Squadron. She was also a Jedi Knight, a Solo and Goddess, just not necessarily in that order of importance. "Of course. Now."
=================================================================
Ktahn Okcha was a warrior blessed by the Gods and above all the others, he was blessed by Yun Yuuzhan. He was worthy of ever single tattooed scar, every misshapen broken bone in his body, and he was worthy of every single implant that the Yun Yuuzhan had seen fit to grant him. He was used to death and pain; he embraced it and did not fear it. He was also one of the best pilots and strategists that the line of Okcha had ever produced.
The Jeedai infidels in the metal ship would never make it down to the planet's surface. He would personally see to that. They would not defy this newly consecrated Yuuzhan Vong world with their presence. He sneered in disgust as coral skippers exploded around him. Those pilots were fools, but perhaps he could use those fools to his advantage as a distraction. He moved in towards the ship, intent on taking advantage of its weakness and stopped as an aft compartment began to hiss open.
He let loose several molten bursts of plasma towards the ship, and then rolled his skip away. Let other pilots die and fail their mission. He didn't seek to escape death, but if his mission was unsuccessful then what was the point. A moment later he watched as an x-wing, lasers starting to fire as soon as it cleared the other ship, came tumbling out of the larger ship. Even as it did the larger ship tumbled quickly away from it.
With precision, not the mindless determination that controlled many of his so called peers, he launched several volleys of plasma at the x-wing, ignoring the large ship for the moment. He was surprised when his shots didn't hit shields and instead slammed directly into the midsection of the x-wing, sending pieces of debris exploding through the vacuum towards all of the skips tightly grouped into the pack that was following the large ship.
Several skips exploded on impact with debris, but most didn't. Dovin Basals sucked up pieces of the debris or shoved them away. It was a useless ploy and unworthy of their adversary. As he dodged away from a large piece of fuselage, and his own dovin basal strained to push it further away from him, he realized far too late what they were doing. The dovin basals of all of the skips in the immediate area were stressed and strained almost to their limit at the moment. That was when the secondary charge, placed where the x-wing's astromech droid would have been, exploded. Ktahn Okcha didn't have time to curse Yun Harla before he died.
=================================================================
Under any other circumstances, Jaina would have let out a whoop of joy and seeing the Vong harassing them vaped. Now, however, she simply started checking the systems for damage and assessing the situation, to see what if any emergency repairs that she needed to make. It wasn't time to celebrate yet, they still had to hunt Callista down and rescue Ben. She braced herself as the ship shuddered as they entered the planet's atmosphere.
"I found them," Mara's voice was as cold and hard as durasteel forged in a vacuum. Callista's hours were numbered.
Please leave a review with your thoughts and criticisms, even flames are accepted. It helps me to improve.
"Ten minutes to reversion," Jaina stated calmly, although she was really anything, but calm at the moment. She was impatient and angry. Her cousin had been kidnapped from right underneath both she and Mara's respective noses and she could have prevented. She should have fought harder, done more to ensure that Callista wouldn't be walking away from that fight. Callista wouldn't walk away again, she promised herself, not if she or Mara had anything to say about it.
"I want the lasers on-line as soon as we return to realspace," Mara said sharply, "She might have someone waiting for us." When Jaina had first told Mara about Ben's kidnapping, she had been surprised at how calmly her aunt had seemed to take the news. Now she knew better. She had always known of course, that Mara was a fully trained former Imperial assassin. It was simply a well acknowledged fact in her family. During her training she had profited greatly from Mara's extensive knowledge of most forms of combat, but until today she had never really been forced to confront that aspect of Mara's past. Today she had seen why Mara had been respected and even feared by those who had known who she truly was back then. If the person they were chasing had been anyone other than Callista, or if Ben hadn't been kidnapped, Jaina might have even been sorry for her.
The waited in tense silence as the minutes seemed to stretch out into forever. Both women watched as the counter ticked down to zero. Mara easily pulled it back towards her and they felt the familiar sensations of reverting to normal space.
The moment they were out, Jaina moved into action. Before Mara had even said anything, she was already starting scans on the system, and using the navcomputer to find their location. It didn't take her long however, to notice that Mara didn't seem to be paying attention to anything. Instead she was gazing out the view screen, staring out at the stars and the nearby planetary system as if they could tell her something, as if there was something there that Jaina couldn't see.
"Something's not right here," Mara said after a moment, "This whole system seems to be...off somehow."
Jaina didn't answer her for a moment. She had long ago learned to trust Mara's hunches. Mara was well known among the Jedi for her hunches and her intuition. To say that they were incredibly accurate was an understatement. It only took her a moment to find what she was looking for. "She's on the fifth planet in the system," she said quickly, "And she's not alone. I'm reading signs of Vong world forming on several of the other planets." Jaina hesitated for a second as she took note of their position. They were very close in to the Core, much closer than she had been aware that the Vong had made it. If they got out of this the Galactic Alliance command would have to be informed about this new encroachment.
Mara's console started screeching with threat warning's at the same time Jaina saw them. A squadron of skips were launching from the ninth planet in the system. Jaina looked over at Mara. She was the one in charge here. In normal circumstances they would have simply charged headfirst into the situation, but with Ben being held by them, or so they assumed, it was a entirely different story.
Mara didn't hesitate for a second. With a few deft adjustments to her console, the Jade Shadow was screaming towards the fifth planet and the skips. The skips spat molten plasma at them as they danced through the void towards them. Two skips screamed past them and exploded into coral dust as Mara sent the 'Shadow into a flat spin and Jaina simultaneously targeted them, using the ships guns to spit laser fire at them, chewing at their dovin basals defenses until they collapsed.
The 'Shadow rocked as they continued to weave their way through the skips and down towards the surface of the planet. As they went down, they continued to trade fire with the skips, overwhelmed by numbers but leaving coral dust in their wake, more often than not.
"Mara we have to get these skips off of our tail before we get to the planet's surface," Jaina hissed, while continuously spraying fire at the leading skip.
"Well," Mara demanded, "Do you have any suggestion? Because as many of these skips as we vape they just keep replacing them with more!"
Jaina smirked. The very first squadron she had ever joined was Rogue Squadron. She was also a Jedi Knight, a Solo and Goddess, just not necessarily in that order of importance. "Of course. Now."
=================================================================
Ktahn Okcha was a warrior blessed by the Gods and above all the others, he was blessed by Yun Yuuzhan. He was worthy of ever single tattooed scar, every misshapen broken bone in his body, and he was worthy of every single implant that the Yun Yuuzhan had seen fit to grant him. He was used to death and pain; he embraced it and did not fear it. He was also one of the best pilots and strategists that the line of Okcha had ever produced.
The Jeedai infidels in the metal ship would never make it down to the planet's surface. He would personally see to that. They would not defy this newly consecrated Yuuzhan Vong world with their presence. He sneered in disgust as coral skippers exploded around him. Those pilots were fools, but perhaps he could use those fools to his advantage as a distraction. He moved in towards the ship, intent on taking advantage of its weakness and stopped as an aft compartment began to hiss open.
He let loose several molten bursts of plasma towards the ship, and then rolled his skip away. Let other pilots die and fail their mission. He didn't seek to escape death, but if his mission was unsuccessful then what was the point. A moment later he watched as an x-wing, lasers starting to fire as soon as it cleared the other ship, came tumbling out of the larger ship. Even as it did the larger ship tumbled quickly away from it.
With precision, not the mindless determination that controlled many of his so called peers, he launched several volleys of plasma at the x-wing, ignoring the large ship for the moment. He was surprised when his shots didn't hit shields and instead slammed directly into the midsection of the x-wing, sending pieces of debris exploding through the vacuum towards all of the skips tightly grouped into the pack that was following the large ship.
Several skips exploded on impact with debris, but most didn't. Dovin Basals sucked up pieces of the debris or shoved them away. It was a useless ploy and unworthy of their adversary. As he dodged away from a large piece of fuselage, and his own dovin basal strained to push it further away from him, he realized far too late what they were doing. The dovin basals of all of the skips in the immediate area were stressed and strained almost to their limit at the moment. That was when the secondary charge, placed where the x-wing's astromech droid would have been, exploded. Ktahn Okcha didn't have time to curse Yun Harla before he died.
=================================================================
Under any other circumstances, Jaina would have let out a whoop of joy and seeing the Vong harassing them vaped. Now, however, she simply started checking the systems for damage and assessing the situation, to see what if any emergency repairs that she needed to make. It wasn't time to celebrate yet, they still had to hunt Callista down and rescue Ben. She braced herself as the ship shuddered as they entered the planet's atmosphere.
"I found them," Mara's voice was as cold and hard as durasteel forged in a vacuum. Callista's hours were numbered.
Please leave a review with your thoughts and criticisms, even flames are accepted. It helps me to improve.