Summary: Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.
Disclaimer: Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.
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Chapter 25: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
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Kyp was already moving toward the intruder when he heard Mara Jade yell. He didn't turn, knowing instinctively what was happening. He could feel it through the Force, and it was exactly what he'd been afraid of. But he didn't have time to worry about that right now. No matter how worried he was about Horn sliding to the Dark Side, the man standing two meters away with a detonator in his hand was a much more important and immediate threat. Besides, Mara seemed content to deal with Horn, and he'd had enough of getting thrown around by the Corellian.
He reached out with the Force, yanking the detonator out of the cloaked man's hand as he lowered his thumb to activate it. Once he had it in his hand, though, he wasn't sure exactly what to do with it. When the would-be bomber took off in the opposite direction, though, his mind was made up. He placed the detonator on the ground, figuring it would be safe with Mara and Horn – however bad Horn might get, he wasn't likely to blow up the base – and broke into a run.
The intruder was nowhere in sight by the time he rounded the corner, so Kyp reached out into the Force, searching for the man's presence. He wasn't far, and he was cornered.
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"Horn!!" Mara shouted into the Jedi's face as she shoved him back, pinning his right hand flat against the wall. "Don't do this again! You don't…need…to do this," she said, struggling to hold him back. He wasn't a large man, but he was strong – he prided himself on it. She was no slouch herself, but Horn was constantly in training just as she was and, out of any of Rogue Squadron's pilots, was one of the few able to match her on pure strength and ability.
Fed up with fighting someone nearly as trained as she was – and more than likely physically stronger than she – Mara stepped back slightly to give herself a little leverage, then hooked her foot behind his ankle. Yanking backward and out, she knocked him off balance and, giving him a hard shove to the side, brought him down to the ground.
She went with him, but managed to catch herself before she actually hit the floor. Kneeling down, she leaned over him, wondering if he was unconscious and thinking that that might not be such a bad thing. No such…luck. His eyes were open now and the Force disturbance that he'd caused when he'd drawn on the Dark Side was gone. He moved her hand off his chest and pushed himself into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his head.
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Wedge headed toward Jesina, determined to find out about that man Lonciez – and something decided to help him along.
He was thrown in her direction as the wall he'd been standing near exploded into the room. He came down on his back – hard – on top of one of the long tables and it collapsed under the combined weight of his body and the blocks of ice that followed him.
He heard more crashes and shouting from the others as his head connected with the table – or something just as hard. He blinked furiously, but his vision continued to blur. Black crept in at the edges and he shook his head, moaning as dizziness and nausea washed over him. His head throbbed as he felt ice chips rain down on his face and his exposed skin and tried to speak.
Only a few unintelligible words made it past his lips. Hands moved over his chest and arms, and he thought he felt someone touch his head. But the blackness was more insistent now, and he closed his eyes, letting it overtake him.
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Kyp's danger sense flared as he drew closer to the intruder, but it didn't give him enough warning to be able to react in time. A second later he heard the explosion, and the intruder's Force signature vanished. He didn't have a chance to think about what that meant, however. A moment after that he was hurled against the wall, large blocks of ice coming down on top of him.
He tried to construct a Force-shield around himself and succeeded – for a while anyway. But after a moment, it faltered under the barrage, and he knew he wouldn't be able to maintain it much longer. No, he couldn't keep this up for long at all. He tried to move away, but didn't get far enough in time.
One of the larger pieces of ice came toward him as the shield he'd constructed gave way. It him squarely in the chest, slamming him down. He never had a chance to shunt away the pain. The impact against his chest slammed his head backward. His head connected solidly with the floor, and he blacked out instantly.
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Mara got to her feet and reached a hand down to help Horn stand up, pausing momentarily when she heard something that sounded a little like thunder. "What in the galaxy…" she started, trailing off as ice fragments began to shower down from the ceiling, the flow growing heavier by the second. Yanking the Corellian to his feet, she yelled, "Run!"
They didn't get very far. A second later she was on the floor flat on her back, meters away from where they'd been. The other Jedi was sprawled across her stomach and legs, face down. They slid across the slick floor, staying in the exact same position, coming to a stop when the reached a corner and her head hit the still-intact wall of ice.
She shunted the pain away through the Force, fighting the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm her, and reached a hand toward Horn's throat to check for a pulse.
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Inyri had been in the process of standing up when the wall more or less imploded, sending ice fragments – and larger chunks – flying in all directions. The force of the blast slammed her back against the wall. Her head cracked against the wall and she sank down to the ground. She put her hand to the back of her head and it came away sticky with blood.
She opened her eyes just in time to see the table in front of her collapse as Wedge fell onto it like a rag doll. She held her hands over her face to shield it from the debris and it felt like an hour before silence fell over the room again.
Slowly, she lowered her hands and looked around. Ensa was on the ground half a meter away, Teril beside him. The girl was slumped over, and Inyri guessed she'd hit her head. On her own right lay Duryll, but he was moving, so she wasn't too concerned. She glanced back toward Ensa and Teril and saw that Ensa was tending to Teril, so she looked to find the others.
Ooryl was at the end of the now-defunct table, pulling himself to his feet. Donos was beside him, helping Gavin up. They'd been the farthest from the blast, and looked like they hadn't suffered much other than a few bruises.
From where she sat, she couldn't see Tycho, Janson…or Hobbie. They'd been relatively close to Wedge – and near the wall that no longer existed.
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Horn didn't move as Mara pressed her fingertips to his throat, but she did feel a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
Pushing on his shoulder gently – she didn't know how extensive his injuries might be, but from the meter-wide slab of ice across part of his lower back and his right leg, she guessed that he might be pretty badly off – she pulled her legs free and massaged them gently.
After feeling had returned to her legs, she shifted her position and knelt, pushing away the piece of the wall that had landed on the other Jedi and then rolled him slowly onto his back. She leaned down, putting her ear to his mouth, and listened. It was slow, but at least he was breathing.
She ran her hands down his torso and, unconscious though he was, he moved and gasped slightly at a few tender spots – specifically, where the ice slab had landed on him. Then she moved on to each of his legs, noticing a few spots on his right leg that didn't feel quite right. "Probably broken," she murmured, picking up some of the ice chips that had settled to the ground around them. She held the ice in her hand until it melted, and then let the water run over his face.
After a moment, he stirred slightly and blinked a few times. Eyes still closed he asked, "What happened?"
She looked down the corridor – or what was left of it. They weren't completely blocked off from the rest of the base; they'd have to climb over debris that was about a meter and a half high, but there was an opening on top about a meter high that they could climb through. Of course, that was provided Horn could climb, which she wasn't sure about at the moment. "I don't really know."
Her words didn't seem to quite register with him. "Is everyone else okay?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I hope so."
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Inyri reached toward a chair – still upright, somehow – and pulled herself to her feet. She saw Jesina and one of the NRI agents, the guy who'd been giving Wedge strange looks since he'd walked through the door, leaning over Wedge. A moment later she saw Wes and Hobbie on their knees, Tycho between them, flat on his back on the icy floor.
Hobbie was bleeding from a gash on his forehead, and the hair on the back of Wes' head was matted with blood – but neither of them seemed to notice. Glancing around quickly, she saw that no one had gotten the first aid kit, so she made her way toward it, nearly falling several times because of the debris and the melting ice. Once she got the kit, she did fall, and elected to half-crawl/half-slide across the floor, heading first to Wes, Tycho, and Hobbie.
Deciding that Wes was worse off than Hobbie, no matter how concerned she might be about her boyfriend, she pulled some gauze out and said softly, "You hit your head pretty good," as she squeezed some antiseptic gel onto the gauze. "This is gonna sting."
As she dabbed at the cut, she heard him curse under his breath. "Sorry," she said, but he shrugged, keeping his head steady. Finally, she gave up. "I can't do much more," she apologized, "but I think the bleeding has stopped."
She turned to Hobbie, but he waved her off. "Tycho needs it more than I do."
"You can't even see!" she protested. In response, he wiped at his forehead, smearing the blood, and she rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath. "Men!"
She gave them a few bacta patches and bandages and then moved toward Jesina and Wedge, who looked to be in even worse shape than Tycho.
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After lying on the floor for a few minutes, unmoving, Corran had let Mara help him up. He'd quickly come to the conclusion that his right leg was indeed broken – in a couple of places. Grimacing and shunting away the pain, he'd leaned heavily on her as they limped down the corridor, to the wall of ice partially blocking the way. She turned, regarding him skeptically. "Can you make it?"
He made a face. "If I have to."
She circled him and he felt her fingers on the back of his head. Then she came back around to face him and said, "The bleeding isn't stopping. We need to get a first aid kit, and you need that leg set." She paused. "I can go alone."
He shook his head. "No. I'll go. We don't know what exactly happened, who else might be hurt – or if whoever…Durron was chasing is still around."
"He's not," she said softly, turning back to the wall of ice. "Are you sure you can manage?"
He looked up, gauging the distance and looking for potential foot- and handholds. He'd have to drag his right leg – it'd be useless for climbing and if he tried to use it, he would probably only hurt himself more. "I can make it."
"Without the Force?"
He glanced away, toward what was left of the wall. He'd been wondering when she was going to bring that up, and was surprised she'd waited this long. "I'll have to shunt away the pain."
"Nothing more than that," she said firmly. He nodded and felt her hand on his shoulder. "Nothing more than that. Or you wait here."
"I'm not stupid, Jade," he said as he turned around.
She looked a little sad. "I never said you were. I just don't like seeing good people make mistakes that they don't have to make." She paused. "Just like I was worried about Skywalker when I left Yavin."
He met her eyes, and the fire that normally blazed in them seemed a little dull. She'd been concerned that Luke would try to do too much too fast following his time with the Reborn Emperor. Thinking about that, he understood what she was trying to say. He turned back to the wall and said, "I'll go first. You might have to give me a boost. Climbing with three limbs isn't exactly the easiest thing I've ever done."
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Hobbie looked over at Inyri, helping Jesina and her partner – if that was what he was – with Wedge. She'd seemed upset when he'd shrugged off her help, but he'd told the truth. Tycho had hit his head harder and unless he missed his guess, he had a couple of broken ribs. How he and Wes had only gotten a few cuts was beyond him. Maybe the Force decided that I had it bad enough when I was here the last time, he thought.
Aloud he asked, "How is he?"
"Bacta's about to become Wedge's very good friend," Jesina replied tightly. She turned slightly. "How's Tycho?"
He could see her worry on her face. No matter how close they'd all been back then – or were now, for that matter – Tycho was still her best friend and her first concern. Wedge was a distant second. And he wasn't sure where Wes fell in that. "He'll be all right. It's gonna hurt him to breathe for a while, but he'll be okay. We need to get them both into bacta, though."
He glanced around. With Wedge and Tycho down, he and Wes were the ranking Rogue, but Jesina outranked them both. "What do we do?"
In response, she pulled out her comlink. "You there, Jade?"
After a moment, they heard Mara's voice. "I'm here. Horn's with me."
"You both all right? What about Durron?"
"Been better…Horn's got a fractured leg, but I'm all right. Durron was on his own. Don't know where he is."
"You know what hit us?"
There was another long pause. "Can't say for sure, but I can make a guess."
Hobbie saw Jesina glance toward him and roll her eyes. "Give me a guess then," she muttered.
"We ran into whoever took a shot at Klivian and Forge. He had a detonator in his hand, but Durron got it away from him. Right now, it's probably buried under a meter or so of snow and ice. But that doesn't mean he didn't have anything else on him. Near as I can tell, he's dead now…" she trailed off for a moment, then said, "You can figure it out."
"Yeah. Thanks. We're going to head to the med center. We've got a few injuries, no fatalities."
"See you there. I'll get Horn there, and look for Durron on the way."
Jesina pocketed her comlink and looked at her partner. "Vayl, you, Malat and Tekha, see if the path is clear to the med center. Meryk, Tera, Kilas, Antyr – help get the Rogues on their feet."
Hobbie watched as Vayl stood, drawing his blaster, and motioned to Malat and Tekha. As they left, the other four nodded and moved toward Teril, Gavin, and the rest of the pilots. Most of the Rogues had sustained some kind of injury, but not the Intel team. Jesina's crew had been lucky – they'd ducked behind a table when the blast hit.