"Ace" Onasi

by Kolya

Captain Carth Onasi clutched the flight control as if it was the most precious thing in the galaxy, and right now for the crew and passengers of the Republic cruiser Endar Spire, it was. The ship rocked again with a laser blast staccato as the Sith fighters made another pass. Pain accompanied the blasts in Carth's mind for the "Death Knell of the Endar Spire Symphony" playing out in the space over the planet Taris. It pulsed continuously up Carth's quite broken right arm but his grip on the flight control never wavered.

No one actually called Carth Onasi "Carth". All his friends knew him by the moniker "Ace"…Ace Onasi, and in Ace's world there were only two types of people, friends or Sith. Right now he had to try and maneuver out of the clutches of one type to save the other.

Only ten minutes ago things had been tickaty-boo. It had been clear sailing for the Endar Spire as it entered Taris orbit. Ace had been in discussion with Admiral Hollister and the Jedi Bastila Shan as to the details of the Jedi's mission aboard the Spire when the Sith had come from seemingly nowhere raining destruction upon the ship. Ace's broken arm had resulted when he had attempted to shield the Admiral from a piece of falling debris dislodged by the initial attack wave. Ace had managed to save the Admiral's life but the act had resulted in fracturing his arm in three places.

After making sure that the Admiral was okay, Ace had immediately taken over at flight control. After all, he was the best pilot in the Republic, though he himself would never make such a claim. What a guy!

"It's no use Ace," the Admiral said panic slipping into his voice. "We're deader than a gizka on a Hutt's dinner table."

"Don't you believe it Admiral," Ace said giving his superior officer his charming devil-may-care smile. "If there's a way to keep this bird flying, I'll find it." The Admiral flushed a little and shook his head smiling to himself.

"What a guy," he said to himself as he returned to his seat. He was almost redundant in this situation with a guy like Ace around, might as well sit it out and enjoy the ride.

The ship continued to rock as wave after wave of Sith fighters hammered the hull of the great Republic ship. Suddenly one of the scanner operators gave the report no one had wanted to hear.

"Sith pods have attached themselves to the hull! They're boarding!"

Setting the controls to autopilot Ace stood and faced the Admiral.

"Admiral, we cannot allow Jedi Bastila to fall into the hands of the Sith. The Republic war effort depends on her and that Battle Meditation of hers!"

"You're right Ace," the Admiral said. "We need to get her to an escape pod. But there'll be a squadron of Sith onboard by now between us and those pods. It's a suicide mission!"

"I'll get her there Admiral. Can't go risking important personnel such as yourself or any of this brave crew."

"But Ace…."

"No buts Admiral," Ace said putting his intact arm on the Admiral's shoulder. "You know I'm right."

Admiral Hollister lowered his head sadly as Ace took the Jedi by the arm saying "Come along milady, there's an escape pod with your name on it." As he reached the door that would take him from the bridge to the escape pods he turned back to the bridge crew. All were looking at him with a lump in their throats and pride in their eyes…and maybe even a small tear or two.

"Smoke me a kipper boys, I'll be back for breakfast," Ace said and then activated the door and stepped off the bridge.

"What a guy," the entire bridge crew said in unison.

Ace ran with Bastila down the corridor. They had only managed to get ten meters when they were confronted by the first members of the Sith boarding party. Ace shoved Bastila down another corridor as the Sith opened fire. Using the wall as cover Ace pulled his blaster pistol from its holster. Unfortunately because of the position of the Sith relative to his cover he was forced to take the pistol in his shattered right arm while he held Bastila back with his left. Pain leaped with each pull of the trigger but Ace never let it touch his face. Three shots fired, three Sith downed. With smoke still rising from the blaster wounds Ace and Bastila stepped back into the main corridor. Bastila looked down at Ace's right arm, still clutching the pistol, and noticed that blood had started to drip slightly from beneath his sleeve.

"Oh Ace, doesn't that hurt?" She said concern filling her voice.

"The pain is nothing compared to the thought of this scum taking control of this beautiful galaxy of ours, now that's agony!" he said as they continued on. Bastila fell a couple steps behind him watching him move stealthily down the corridor checking each cross-corridor for more enemies.

"What a guy," she said and caught up to him again.

The pair made it much further this time before encountering more opposition. This time five Sith soldiers cut them off from their destination. Once again pushing Bastila behind cover Ace was able to take up his blaster again, this time with his left hand. Firing two shots in quick succession Ace downed the two leading Sith. Pulling the trigger for a third shot Ace's blaster emitted a slight whine and powered down.

"Drained faster than a juma juice in a cantina," Ace said tossing the blaster aside. "Well, I guess I'll just have to do this the old fashioned way."

Before Bastila could say or do anything Ace had launched himself from his cover and ran straight for the remaining three Sith. As he ran past the first of the two Sith he had managed to shoot Ace reached down and unsheathed a vibroblade from the soldier's belt. Taking it up in his left hand Ace flung himself into the midst of the three still standing Sith.

Composing herself Bastila reached down to her belt to unclip her lightsaber. Swinging herself around the corner she moved her thumb to activate it but before she could she stopped short and her mouth fell open. Ace was just finishing off the last of Sith. He had just used his limp right arm like a club to slam his enemy off balance and while the Sith tried to recover Ace was able to shove the vibroblade into his ribs.

"Ace where…how…?" Bastila stammered returning her lightsaber to her belt.

"Republic Special Training during the Mandalorian Wars," he said tossing the knife aside and picking up one of the blasters the Sith no longer had a use for. Walking towards Bastila Ace steadied himself with his left arm on the wall.

"Sorry love, I'm afraid I'm going to have to do something a bit sissy – black out," Ace said loosing consciousness and slumping forward. Bastila was able to keep him upright but it hardly mattered for in a mere three seconds Ace regained consciousness and shook himself out of it.

"Sorry about that, let's get cracking!" Ace said as if nothing had happened, and with that he lead her the rest of the way to the escape pod hanger.

When they had arrived Bastila turned to him placing her palms on his chest. She turned her face upwards to gaze into his eyes.

"Well this is it dove, your ticket to Safesville. Better get onboard," Ace said.

"Please Ace, come with me," Bastila pleaded.

"No can do pet, you see, I never leave a man behind," Ace said holding her away. "These soldiers need me to help them get out of this little pickle and I can't let them down. But the war effort needs you. Without that spectacular Battle Meditation of yours the tide of this war could turn faster than a Bantha cleaner's stomach, and I can't let that happen. Time for you to go."

"Oh Ace," Bastila said. "You know, everyone thinks I'm so cold, frigid, and stodgy, but my heart can't help but melt when I'm around you." And then the two leaned in and kissed deeply. After the moment had past Ace lead Bastila into one of the two remaining escape pods. Moving to the control panel he began the activation sequence.

"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast," he said hitting the finalization button. The door slammed shut and sealed itself. Bastila placed a hand on the window and Ace watched as her pod shot away into space.

Ace turned away and began to head for the door when he realized that it was locked and wouldn't open. Somehow the security mechanism had malfunctioned. The door would now only open from the outside.

"Blast," Ace said returning to the control panel. He tried to open a communications channel to the bridge but received no answer.

"Drat," he said initializing a scan of the ship for all life forms. He found several Sith now on board, and not just the run-of-the-mill soldiers but also a couple Dark Jedi. Of the Endar Spire crew he only scanned a handful including one the computer recognized as a Jedi who had been a companion of Bastila on this mission. He made a general communications announcement to the remaining crew apprising them of the situation and then waited.

It grated on his nerves to wait. He should be out there helping where he could, but he was trapped. All he could do was wait and hope other crew members managed to make it to the escape pods. His hopes began dropping faster than a Twi'lek dancer's knickers as he noticed the crew life signs begin to disappear. Some Sith were also being removed from the scan, but not enough.

Ace noticed that oddly enough that there seemed to be a larger number of Sith casualties surrounding two crew life signs. He called up their registrations. One was an ensign named Trask Ulgo, the other one didn't have a full registration but was designated as someone Bastila had requested be brought onboard at the last moment. Ace began trying to tune the communications panel to Trask's personal communicator.

Ace watched as the pair reached Bastila's Jedi companion and then saw as her life sign too was removed from the scan, snuffed out by an explosion. The pair got closer and closer to the escape pods and Ace thought they just might make it all the way. Suddenly the pair were confronted by another life sign. Ace watched as Trask's life sign rushed towards the other and promptly disappeared. Checking the life sign readout again Ace now saw that only one member of the crew remained, the unknown soldier.

Ace quickly changed frequencies to lock on the soldier's communicator. He received a lock and opened a channel.

"This is Carth Onasi on your personal communicator," he began. "I'm tracking your position through the Endar Spire's life support systems. Bastila's escape pod is away – you're the last surviving crew member of the Endar Spire!"

Suddenly a new alarm began to sound on his control panel. A Sith squad was right outside the door, far too many for even Ace to handle alone. Ace quickly activated the external locks but it wouldn't be too much longer until they made their way through. He would have to leave soon if he was to make it down to the planet to make sure Bastila was safe.

"I can't wait for you much longer; you have to get to the escape pods!" Ace checked the scanner again. "But be careful. There's a Sith patrol just down the corridor. Use your stealth skill to sneak past him."

The soldier acknowledged and Ace lost track of his life sign, but the comm. channel remained open so he knew that the soldier had merely activated his personal stealth device. Suddenly the life sign returned further down the corridor in front of a bulkhead one room away from Ace. Ace noticed that in the room with the soldier there was a broken down assault droid.

"Be careful!" Ace said again into the communicator. "There's a whole squad of Sith Troopers on the other side of that door! You need to find some way to thin their numbers. You could reprogram the damaged assault droid to help you, if you have enough repair parts. Or you could use computer spikes to slice into the terminal and use the Endar Spire's security systems against the Sith."

Ace watched as the droid's systems went online. Then the bulkhead retracted and one by one the Sith life signs vanished like credits at a rigged Pazaak table. Then the soldier was right outside the door leading to the room in which he stood. Ace released the external locking mechanism and the door opened.

"You made it just in time! There's only one active escape pod left. Come on, we can hide out on the planet below!"

"How do I know I can trust you?" the soldier asked.

"I'm a soldier with the Republic, like you. We're the last two crew members left on the Endar Spire. Bastila's escape pod's already gone, so there's no reason for us to stick around here and get shot by the Sith. Now come on – there'll be time for questions later!" And with that the only two survivors of the Endar Spire left the ship to her horrible demise.

Hitting the atmosphere shook the pod greatly. Warning lights and klaxons bleached sight and sound into red and white until nothing made any sense anymore. The two Republic soldiers clung to their safety harnesses but couldn't stop themselves from being thrown violently about. Suddenly there was a sound of rending metal and the world turned upside down and inside out. Finally everything went black.

Ace recovered after only a few minutes and looked around. The pod had cracked open slightly and dim light peeked in. His head was throbbing in time with his broken arm and when he reached a hand up to his forehead it came away wet and sticky. A large gash leaked precious blood.

Ace looked over at his companion in the rollercoaster ride that had been the decent to the planet. The other fellow was unconscious, probably badly banged up, but at least still alive.

Ace removed himself from his safety harness and fought to remain upright through the pain in his head and arm. Moving to the other soldier he removed his safety harness as well. Despite the use of only one arm Ace pulled the other man from the wreckage of the escape pod after kicking open the door to reveal the planet's surface.

Fortunately it was still early dawn and there were no beings on the streets, though Ace was sure that after that spectacular crash someone would be around before too long. As quickly as he could Ace pulled his companion through the street to an apartment complex.

Sneaking through the corridors Ace tried several apartment doors, all locked, until finally one opened. The apartment looked abandoned and fairly poorly maintained.

"Well it's not the Taj Mahal old bean," Ace said absently to his unconscious companion, "but it will have to do I suppose."

For the next three days Ace ministered to the unconscious soldier whose name he still didn't know. He managed to stitch up his forehead and apply some syth-skin from his field first aid kit as well as set and brace his broken arm. Ace watched his companion toss and turn, thrashing as if in the clutches of a horrible nightmare, but nothing he could do with all his knowledge of field micro-surgery could help the fellow regain consciousness. In the meantime Ace changed from his Republic uniform into his preferred shiny gold flight-suit, the one with the fur-lined collar. It was a uniform of action and he wanted to be ready for anything that might come up.

Then finally one day the soldier stirred and awoke. He looked around panicked at his unfamiliar surroundings. Ace went quickly to his side.

"Good to see you up, instead of thrashing around in your sleep," he said trying to calm his agitated companion. "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up. I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire, friends call me Ace. I was with you on the escape pod, do you remember?"

"Right," the shaken soldier said. "I'm Thrad Vaner, by the way. How did we get here?"

"Well, you've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now, so I imagine you're pretty confused about things. Try not to worry. We're safe…at least for the moment," Ace said looking around at their surroundings.

"We're in an abandoned apartment on the planet of Taris," he continued. "You were banged up pretty bad when our escape pod crashed, luckily I wasn't seriously hurt. I was able to drag you away from our crash site in all the confusion, and I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment. By the time the Sith arrived on the scene we were long gone."

"I guess I owe you my life," Thrad said. "Thanks."

"You don't have to thank me. I've never abandoned anyone on a mission, and I'm not about to start now. Besides, I'm going to need your help."

Ace laid out his plan for finding Bastila and the urgency of the mission. Thrad, whom Ace gave the handle "Smugs" since Thrad informed him that he used to be a smuggler, at first wasn't too thrilled with the idea but he eventually got onboard.

"Come on," Smugs said. "I want to scout this planet out a bit."

"Good idea," Ace said unzipping a pocket in his flight-suit from which he pulled a pair of sunglasses. "We can use this abandoned apartment as a base, and we can probably get some equipment and supplies here in the Upper City. Just remember to keep a low profile," Ace finished as he put the sunglasses on.

"Alright, soldier, let's move out," Ace said and activating the door release and stepping into the corridor. Smugs hung back for a second gazing admiringly after Ace.

"What a guy," he said and quickly moved to catch up.