With the addition of this chapter, this is now the longest Star Wars/SVTFOE crossover on this site. (There's only two, which kinda surprises me, but whatever.)

If my research is correct, the longest SVTFOE crossover of any kind on this site is somewhere in the vicinity of 252,000 words. Based on how much I've written already and how much more story I have planned...I think there's a good chance I might best that.

"I really hope this works. I'd really hate for the last two days of my life to have been spent doing all of this just for it to blow us all up when we turn it on."

Tom gave a chuckle at Marco's cheeky remark. "Me, too, Dude. I'd hate for all this work to have been for nothing."

For the past two rotations, the crew of the Raventalon had worked tirelessly to prepare the ship for their slingshot through the Imperial patrol grid. Star and Marco helped out as much as they could, but neither being familiar with the intricacies of starship propulsion systems, Janna and Tom had to do most of the work. Even so, their modifications were nearly complete, and Tom and Marco were busily putting the finishing touches on the fusion reactor.

"Hey! How's it looking in here, boys?" Janna asked as she poked her head into the engine room.

"Almost done," Tom replied, wiping sweat from his brow.

The Raventalon's captain came over for a closer look, stepping carefully over the huge power cable laying across the floor. "Walk me through what ya got."

Tom set down his tools and pointed out each step of fusion reactor's upgrades while Marco leaned against the bulkhead. "We've got the new power feed from the backup hyperdrive tied into this power converter here so that we can change the feed to the stator motor over from the primary when we're ready for the boost. This smaller cable spliced in before the converter is a hardwired power feed to the lubrication pump so that this circuit turns on as soon as the backup hyperdrive does to keep the stator bearings from overheating."

Janna pointed to a cube-shaped component that was tied into the smaller cable. "What's that?"

"Oh, I was worried that the pump motor wouldn't be able to handle the current like the reactor stator motor, so I put a resistor in there to scale the amperage down so the lubrication pump doesn't burn out."

Janna nodded. "Mm...yeah, that's a good idea."

Tom stood up and leaned against the top of the reactor. "You know, I had a thought." He thumped his fist against the top of the reactor's outer shell. "Are you worried at all about starving this thing for fuel?"

"Not really. The fuel sprayers are fired by the rotation of the stator, so if the stator spins faster, then the sprayers should also be spraying more often."

"Well, yeah, but with the sprayers spraying more times per minute, can the fuel compressor keep up?"

Janna scrunched up her lips. "Mmm...I see what you're saying."

"I don't," Marco said to no one in particular.

"Well, when we change the power routing to the stator motor over to the hyperdrive feed, I can route the stator motor's primary feed to assist the fuel compressor."

Tom thought for a moment. "That would probably do it." He gave a shrug. "Then I guess we're all set down here."

Janna folded her arms confidently. "And Star and I are just about finished with the hyperdrive."

"Speaking of which," Marco interjected, "where is Star?"

Gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb, Janna answered, "She's putting the outer case back on the hyperdrive."

No sooner were the words out of Janna's mouth, Star appeared in the doorway. "Actually, I'm right here! All finished!"

"Did you remember to reconnect the harness for the internal ray shield before you put all the fasteners back in?"

Star blinked. "Uhhhh...I'll be right back."

And Star disappeared again, as Janna smiled and shook her head.

"So, Janna," Marco began. "How confident are you that this is gonna work?"

Being the only one in the room who wasn't leaning against something, Janna let her weight fall back against the bulkhead opposite Marco. "I don't know. Moderately?"

"Greaaaat," Marco said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "That makes me feel good."

"Well, you won't have to take my word for it. I'm going to have Pony Head do some calculations and create a simulation to see if we're gonna blow up or not."

This did not ease Marco's mind one bit.

"Once I put the components we added on the ship's system schematic, Pony will be able to run 'diagnostics' on the systems to see if they can adequately handle the load and such."

Tom leaned closer to Marco and whispered "'And such.' Technical term."

Janna headed back for the door. "I'll go start doing that now. Then while Pony Head starts running her tests, we can make some dinner."

Marco smirked. "I'm sure Star will be happy to hear that."

It was Janna's turn to roll her eyes. "I know. She's always hungry."

A sudden spark of inspiration struck in Marco's brain. "Say...since this is probably the last time we'll ever be on Coruscant, how about I go pick up dinner?"

"Really?" Tom asked. "Isn't that a little...dangerous?"

Marco shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm in disguise," he said as he flipped up his hood so that it shaded his face. "And I doubt anyone who cares will recognize me where I'm going."

Janna shrugged. "If you want to take that risk, be my guest."

"Cool! Tom, can I borrow your speeder bike?"

Tom smiled. "All yours, bro."

"Awesome! I'll be back!" Marco started to leave, but then back tracked. He removed his lightsaber from his belt and handed it to Tom. "You'd better hold onto this for me. Wouldn't want anyone to see me with it."

"Yeah, probably a good idea. I'll keep it safe for you."

"Thanks, Tom." And then Marco left.

The instant his footsteps faded away, Janna made a grab for the lightsaber. "Let me see that thing!"

"Janna!" Tom yelped as he tried to hold it out of reach behind him.

"C'mon, just let me try it!"

"It's not a toy!"

Janna stretched her arm out as far as she could and managed to graze the lightsaber with her fingertips. Tom held his arm up higher, the hilt sliding in his grip as he did. He accidentally pressed the activation plate and the green blade shot up into the ceiling, destroying the light and plunging the engine room into darkness aside from the lightsaber's glow.

"Way to go, Tom."

"Shut up."

Hands in the pockets of his hoodie, hood pulled up to obscure his face, Marco patiently waited beside the pick-up window at Britta's Tacos. This would be dinner: one last meal from his and Star's favorite eatery before they had to leave their Coruscanti home forever.

"Here's your order, sir."

The server set down a bag of neatly packaged food on the counter and Marco handed him several credit chips. "Thanks, Oskar."

Oh, crud! I just called him by his name!

"Say, how did you know my name?" Oskar asked as Marco fumbled for the bag while trying not to look in Oskar's direction. "Do I know you? You seem kind of familiar."

Of course I look familiar! Star and I have been coming here at least once a week for the past two years.

"What's your name again? Uhhh..." Oskar snapped his fingers. "Mango! That's it!"

Marco finally got his fingers around the handle on the bag. "Yes. That is definitely me. Mango. See you 'round, Oskar."

"Okay! Bye, Mango!" Oskar called after him.

Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Time to get the heck out of here.

Simultaneously hurrying and desperately trying not to appear to be in a hurry, Marco headed down the stairs that wrapped around the side of Britta's Taco's' main concourse platform to the air speeder parking lot. The light of the late afternoon sun was blocked by a durasteel cantilevered awning that shielded the parking lot, and the evening lights had yet to come on, so the area was fairly dim. Marco was grateful to see that the lot was devoid of life, which made sense because Britta's Taco's was really more of a lunch establishment.

The rear of Tom's little Undicur-class jump speeder had a small storage compartment in the rear behind the seat, and Marco stashed the food inside. Just as he closed and locked the hatch, he was struck with the feeling that he was being watched. He turned around apprehensively, his eyes scanning the nearly empty parking lot, but found nothing.

"Ugh...I'm just paranoid," Marco muttered to himself.

The tiniest ripple in the Force twitched at the back of Marco's mind. He whirled around to find a red lightsaber blade flying toward his face.

Operating on pure instinct, Marco let his knees buckle and he dropped to the ground, the lightsaber blade passing barely a centimeter above his nose as he went down. He landed on his back to find a being dressed in black, every bit of skin covered, a helmet obscuring it's face, and a ruby-bladed lightsaber in each hand.

"Marco Diaz," the inquisitor said simply through its mask. "You were lucky to escape death once." It slowly raised both lightsabers over its head. "I promise you will not be as fortunate this time."

After a brief scream of terror, Marco quickly rolled out of the way as the inquisitor brought both blades down with tremendous speed, each leaving a long gash in the duracrete where Marco had been barely a second before.

Marco quickly jumped to his feet and reached for his belt, but his hand found only the hem of his hoodie. He'd forgotten that he'd left his lightsaber with Tom.

"Oh, no." The red blades were swinging at him once again, and he leaned back as he took a step in retreat. The lightsabers missed their mark for a third time.

I can't fight, I can't defend myself. What do I do? The inquisitor stood between the Padawan and the jump speeder. I could do that, I guess.

When the inquisitor struck out again, Marco summoned every bit of concentration he could muster and leapt into the air, propelling himself off the ground with the Force and sailing over the inquisitor's head. He landed rather ungracefully on the other side, still off-balance as he sprinted the three remaining steps to the speeder bike and hopped on as the inquisitor turned back to face him. With no time to lose, Marco brought the bike to life and twisted the throttle control against its stop. It accelerated so abruptly that he nearly fell off, but he held on for dear life as the bike rocketed out of the parking lot and away from Britta's Taco's.

"What the heck was that?!" Marco wondered aloud to himself. He looked back over his shoulder, and saw nothing to suggest that he was being pursued. A long, deep breath passed his lips, and he steered toward the industrial district, not reducing throttle speed to a safer pace until he was a few klicks away from the taco stand.

Yeah, we definitely have to get off this planet as soon as possible. But at least I lost...whatever that THING was.

After what seemed like forever, Marco crossed over the divide out of Coruscant's populated areas and into the industrial sector. After looking over his shoulder the entire way, Marco finally breathed a sigh of relief.

His relief lasted approximately thirty seconds. Just as Marco turned left down a perpendicular pathway between structures, a pair of blaster bolts flew past him and slammed into the side of the adjacent building.

"What?!"

Looking behind him, Marco saw the inquisitor streaking toward him on a blacked-out 614-AvA speeder bike, the forward-facing blaster cannons spitting another salvo of green lasers at him.

"AAAAH!"

His hand moving nearly of its own volition, Marco jerked the elevation control and the jump speeder dropped several meters, narrowly avoiding the blaster fire as it streaked overhead. When he realized he had narrowly escaped death yet again, Marco twisted the throttle to full power once more and dropped down into the maze of pipes and conduits below.

The inquisitor followed, mirroring every move of its prey, sticking to Marco's tail. Whenever it had the chance, it would fire at him, but Marco maneuvered in and out of every crevasse that his bike could squeeze through as quickly as he dared, making him difficult to hit.

Eventually, Marco's flight path took him to an area where the buildings fell away as huge pipes lay out along the ground and there was little to shield him. He quickly extracted his commlink from the pocket of his hoodie before beginning a series of jukes and dips that he hoped would make him difficult to hit.

He activated the commlink. "Jannaaaaaa!" He yelled into it.

"Marco? You almost here with the food? I'm starving."

"Janna! Get the ship ready to take off! I'm being chased by...something! That is trying very, very hard to kill me and it's right on my tail!"

"What?"

"Just get ready to take off as soon as I get there! And make sure the boarding ramp is still down, I'm gonna be coming in hot!"

Star poked her head into the Raventalon's cockpit where PY-HD was plugged into her computer terminal.

"Hey, Pony!"

The droid's head swiveled around, emitting happy beeps.

"How go the tests?"

A very long series of various noises came as the reply. Even though she knew how to translate astromech binary language, Star only actually understood about half of what PY-HD was saying.

"Oh, that's...cool, I guess," Star tried to say convincingly. "Do you think it's actually gonna-"

"Make a hole, Star!" Janna suddenly pushed past Star, quickly followed by Tom.

"Hey!"

Pilot and co-pilot immediately began flipping switches on the control panels on the bulkheads in the cockpit before each taking their respective seats.

"Uh, what's going on?" Star asked.

A low hum echoed through the ship as the reactor came online and the sublight engines and repulsorlifts whirred to life.

"Marco just called me," Janna explained as she continued flipping switches. "Said he's being chased by someone who's trying to kill him."

"Wait, what?!" Star yelped in shock. "He left?!"

"Went to get food," Tom said quickly.

Star blinked, and then calmly sat down in the seat behind the copilot. "Yeah, okay. That makes sense."

"So now we gotta go," Janna said. "Whoever is chasing him is clearly someone working for Palpatine, so if he makes it back here in one piece, his pursuer will likely call for backup. So it's now or never! We gotta go, now!"

Janna grabbed the control yoke and commanded the Raventalon a few meters off the ground. PY-HD beeped indignantly. "Sorry, Pony," Janna said as she maneuvered the ship from its hiding place as hastily as she dared. "No time for your tests now."

The astromech twittered in annoyance one last time.

"Uh, Janna, the boarding ramp is still down," Tom reminded her as the ship cleared the edge of the abandoned siphoning plant.

"I know. Marco's probably gonna have to get in here in a hurry, don't you think?"

"Oh, good point." Something on the scanner grabbed Tom's attention. "In fact, here he comes now."

Star darted forward from her seat to look out the forward viewscreen. There in the distance was Marco on Tom's jump speeder, weaving back and forth to avoid the blaster canon fire from his black-clad pursuer.

Star practically launched over the second row seats like a missile. "Get the ship high enough for him to fly straight in, I'll close the ramp from the back as soon as he's in!" she yelled as she raced from the cockpit.

"You got it!" Janna called back. Still flying on repulsorlift controls, she glided the ship slowly in Marco's direction, expertly spinning the Raventalon one-hundred-eighty degrees while still moving in a straight line. The boarding ramp was now directly ahead of Marco's current trajectory, and he need only aim the speeder bike inside.

Star hung onto the edge of the bulkhead at the top of the boarding ramp, watching her best friend and his pursuer approach. She ducked back as a few stray blaster bolts from the inquisitor's bike struck the ramp.

"Oh, Marco..." Star whispered to herself worriedly, feeling powerless to help him.

That bike is really close behind him. Maybe there is a way I can help him...

Closing her eyes, Star reached out with the Force, concentrating hard on the inquisitor's speeder bike.

Meanwhile, the inquisitor, having a far faster mount, had significantly erased the gap that Marco held over it now that they were on more open ground. Marco found it becoming more and more difficult to avoid being blasted out of the sky. As they approached the Raventalon hovering in wait just a half-klick ahead, the inquisitor had Marco dead in its sights.

"I gotcha now."

And then completely without warning, the inquisitor's speeder bike bucked forward as it came to an abrupt halt, sending its rider flipping over the handlebars with a surprised yell. Still clutching the bike's handgrips, the inquisitor dangled in the air as it watched Marco rocket away.

From the top of the Raventalon's boarding ramp, Star snickered victoriously, having stopped the inquisitor's bike dead with the Force. "Come on, Marco! Get in here!"

Marco decelerated as he raced past her into the ship, nearly plowing the speeder bike into the bulkhead opposite the boarding ramp. Star slammed down the lever that actuated the boarding ramp and it began to retract. "GO, JANNA!" she yelled as loudly as she could, even though she had a feeling the pilot already knew.

As the Raventalon passed overhead, the inquisitor let go of the left hand grip and dangled from the speeder bike by one hand. It touched a switch on the side of its helmet, activating the built-in commlink. "Hey, it's me. I found that YV-560 freighter that everyone's supposed to be on the lookout for. It's heading for oh-eight-six-niner. Dispatch fighters to intercept immediately."

Still perched atop the jump speeder and leaning against the handlebars, Marco panted, gasping for air. He had been so nervous and was focusing so hard on flying during the final minute of his chase that his subconscious had forgotten to breathe.

"Marco!" Whatever breath he had managed to draw into his lungs was suddenly squeezed out of him as Star wrapped him in a crushing hug. "Thank goodness you're okay!" She released him, and he met her eyes. Her expression suddenly morphed from a smile, thankful he was alright, to angry in a split second. She slapped him on the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"How could you possibly think leaving our hideout and going into the city was a good idea? You could have been killed and I- uh, we would never have even known what happened to you!"

Marco coughed, still trying to refill his lungs. "I just wanted to surprise you. With food from Britta's. Because I didn't think we'd ever be back here again."

Star's expression softened. "Oh...that's...really sweet of you." She blushed slightly. "Sorry I smacked you. But that was really stupid of you to go out there alone."

Marco nervously rubbed his neck. "Yeah, I know. But hey, at least we get to have tacos one last time."

Star smiled. "Yeah, that's true." Her face turned slightly redder beneath the hearts on her cheeks. "Thank you, Marco."

"You're welcome." Marco powered down the speeder bike and carefully climbed off. "So, uh, what's going on now?"

"Oh, Janna said that our hiding place isn't safe anymore because if you made it back here without dying that thing that was trying to kill you would probably call for back up."

"Ah." Marco froze, realizing how much danger he had now put them all in. "Right..."

They started to make their way up to the cockpit.

"Speaking of that thing that was chasing you," Star said, "what the heck even WAS that thing?"

"I have no idea! It just ambushed me in the parking lot at Britta's. All I can tell you is that it had red lightsabers." Marco scratched thoughtfully at his temple. "Although, now that I'm thinking about it, something about that...thing...seemed slightly familiar..."

Janna Ordonia's pet peeve was pilots who looked away from the sky while they were flying. She didn't care if she were flying through deep space and there was nothing to hit, there was no way she was averting her eyes unless the ship was flying on a preprogrammed course or was being controlled by a droid. She didn't even like to look away to activate controls. She had memorized the location of every single button and switch that operated the Raventalon's systems so that she never had to take her eyes off the forward viewscreen, and could control everything strictly by touch.

As such, she paid no attention to Star and Marco as they returned to the cockpit.

"Janna!" Marco called. "Thanks for the rescue!"

"Marco. Good to see you're still in one piece. Really hope whatever you got for dinner was worth us having to run," Janna quipped.

Marco winced. "Yeah, me too."

There was silence as the Raventalon crossed out of the industrial sector. Then Janna quietly asked, "You okay?" of Marco.

"Uh...yeah. I'm, uh, I'm fine."

"Good. Pony, plot us a course to the slingshot launch location. Hopefully we'll get lucky and reach it at just the right time."

"Uh, 'slingshot launch location?'" Star repeated in confusion.

"The spot where we'll make our not-quite-hyperspace jump through the patrol gap," Tom explained. "Janna decided we're calling it a 'slingshot.'"

Various sarcastic noises came from PY-HD.

"What do you mean 'we're not gonna make it?'" Janna asked.

An alert sounded on one of Tom's screens. "Uh-"

"Let me guess," Janna interrupted. "Fighters inbound?"

"...Yes."

"Wonderful." Janna shoved the throttle up and the Raventalon accelerated. "Where are they?"

Tom checked the scanner again. "Kinda everywhere. Four behind, two closing from above just ahead."

"I see the ones ahead," Janna said. Through the forward viewscreen, a pair of ARC-170 fighters were streaking down from the upper atmosphere toward them, their S-foils in attack position. "Well, no need to worry about being seen now. Let's just bug out as fast as we can. Pony, get the slingshot system ready."

PY-HD's response sounded annoyed.

"Well, you'd better finish setting it up in the ship's computer, then! Alright, power up the weapons system and shield generator, Tom. We're gonna have to defend ourselves while Pony Head finishes on her end. Star, Marco, you guys better get on the canons and figure out how to use them pretty quick."

"On it!" Star cried, grabbing Marco's hand and towing him out of the cockpit. "C'mon, Marco!"

"Wait, what are we doing?"

As they left, Tom rapidly began flipping switches, causing various lights on the control panel to turn green. "Weapons systems are online." He flicked a few more switches. "And so are the shields."

"Good. How's it going back there, Pony?"

The astromech twittered in annoyance. Janna groaned and muttered under her breath. "For Force-sakes, we're gonna get blown up."

Star clambered up into the dorsal turret while Marco took the ventral gun. Sitting down in the seat, she quickly felt out the controls. Pedals on the floor, one for each foot, spun the turret on a turntable to the left or right, capable of swiveling a full 360 degrees. The functionality of the trigger was obvious, and tilting the canon up and down was accomplished by simply pulling or pushing the aiming control, assisted by a hydraulic system.

A headset hung on the end of the right side hand grip. She quickly strapped it to her head just in front of her horns. Janna's voice almost immediately came through the earpiece.

"Hey, whichever one of you is topside, there's no inhibitor to keep you from shooting the radar dish, so check your fire!"

"I will try very, very hard to not do that, Janna," Star replied, swiveling the turret a few degrees to the left and realizing that, yes, she could aim directly at the large radar dish on the port side of the ship.

The pair of ARC-170's that had appeared ahead of them from out of the clouds were nearly in range. They kept high, so Marco could not aim his canon at them. Star took careful aim and pulled the trigger, sending a barrage of green laser fire toward the fighters. The ARC's took evasive action, and Star tracked one with the targeting screening above the hand grips. The bolts of green energy pursued one fighter across the sky as Star chased it with the canon, and then quickly spun the turret and forced the other to evade her shots as well. She didn't manage to hit either of them, but she did manage to keep both fighters from being able to line up a shot and fire at theRaventalon.

Below, Marco had his sights on the fighters closing from behind. With theYV-560 freighter fleeing at full throttle, the fighters only gained on them gradually, which gave Marco a decent amount of time to aim. When the closest fighter came into range, Marco squeezed the trigger. His first few shots missed, and the fighters scrambled to avoid his fire. As they drew even closer, Marco let a flurry of semi-random shots fly across the sky. One found its mark on the nearest ARC's lower port-side S-foil, and the ship spiraled out of control and plummeted toward the ground.

"Hey, I got one!"

Then the remaining three fighters began to return fire, filling the air with blue lasers that began to pummel the Raventalon.

Janna banked the ship hard to starboard and twisted the control yoke hard, flipping the ship over a full 360 degrees as she dove down into the paths between the buildings below, hoping to lose the fighters in the maze.

"How's it going back there, Pony?" Janna asked. The astromech chittered. "Almost done? You'd better be!"

More annoyed noises came from PY-HD, but Janna paid the droid no mind and kept focused on flying.

"Marco, be careful! Don't hit anything that isn't already trying to kill us!"

Marco nearly scoffed at Star's warning. How was he supposed to do that? They were skirting around skyscrapers while panicked air speeder drivers rushed to get out of the freighter's way.

Marco took careful aim at one of the fighters chasing close behind and fired one blaster bolt at a time. His first shot missed and slammed into the side of a building. His second nicked an air speeder that somehow didn't explode. He gritted his teeth, closed one eye, and fired one more time. His shot pierced a week point just above the fighter's cockpit canopy and the fighter violently exploded.

"I really hope pieces of that don't hit anyone."

Star felt a tremor in the Force. Looking up, she saw another fighter trying to dive at the the Raventalon from high above. She spun the turret around as fast as it would go, aimed, and fired.

"AH-H-H-H-H-H-H!" Star war-cried as she fired shot after shot straight into the sky.

Far more shots than were necessary, because the very first one struck the ARC-170 dead in the nose, and it vanished in a ball of flame.

Here I am, killing again. Still not feeling guilty about it, though. Actually feeling strangely...accomplished.

Probably because I'm trying to keep myself and Marco and Janna and Tom and Pony Head from getting blown up.

Yeah. That seems logical.

She shook the thoughts away and refocused on staying alive, swiveling around to find another attacking fighter to aim at.

PY-HD bleeped excitedly.

"Pony's done!" Tom cried.

"Good job, Pony!" Janna said. "Let's blow this planet!"

Tom began flipping switches again. "Switching over the hyperdrive control to the backup."

"I'll get this baby into launch position." Janna hauled back on the yoke and the lifted the Raventalon's nose, bringing the freighter up above the tops of the skyscrapers and aiming for the atmosphere. The fighters stayed hot on their trail as Star and Marco continued to return fire. Another ARC-170 tumbled out of the sky. Being pursued meant their path and timing no longer mattered, everyone already knew they were coming. At this point, the slingshot was simply the best method available to lose the chasing fighters.

"Alright, hyperdrive control is ready, and I'm ready to switch primary power to the fuel compressor. Whenever you're ready, Captain." Tom addressed Janna as "Captain" slightly sarcastically, trying to relieve a bit of tension.

A pair of identical levers sat directly between the pilot and copilot's seats side-by-side, meant to each be operated by the crew member in each respective chair. Tom placed his hand on his hyperdrive lever and waited for Janna.

Captain Ordonia sighed. "I really hope this works." She took hold of her own lever. "And if it doesn't...it's been an honor to fly with you, Lucy."

"I'm so nervous, I'm not even going to gripe about you calling me that," Tom chuckled nervously.

Janna took a deep breath. "On three. One...two...three!"

Janna and Tom shoved their respective hyperdrive control levers forward. For a brief moment, nothing seemed to happen.

Then the Raventalon shot forward as if propelled by the shockwave of an explosion. The ARC-170 fighters were left far behind as the freighter raced into the atmosphere.

In the turrets, having both been turned rearwards facing their pursuers, Star and Marco were thrown forward by the force of acceleration. Star caught herself on the canon's hand grips, but Marco did not react quite as quickly and his nose slammed into the targeting computer's screen. The world outside the turret canopies became a blur as they rocketed away from the planet's surface, the ship violently shaking at the intense atmospheric speed.

Tom usually kept his hands off of the copilot's control yoke and just left the flying to Janna. She was a better pilot, anyway. So, he was quite surprised when she yelled, "Tom! Help me hold it steady!" The control yoke in front of him vibrated fiercely as Janna struggled to maintain their course. He quickly grabbed the yoke and forcibly tried to keep it still, helping Janna to keep the ship flying straight and level.

After only about fifteen seconds but what seemed like forever, the Raventalon broke though the upper atmosphere and the violent shaking ceased. Several warning lights starting flashing on various panels as components began to overheat from the stress placed on them.

"We're clear! Shut it down!" Janna cried. Tom's hand snapped to his hyperdrive control lever as Janna did the same and they brought their slingshot to an end.

Tom's eyes flitted over the various warning lights. "Oh, boy." He quickly reached over and pulled the throttle back to minimum speed. Though they were free of the atmosphere, they were still affected by Coruscant's gravity well, and the Raventalon's immense velocity quickly began to decrease.

"What are you doing?"

"The reactor is overheating and over-pressurized and the stator bearings are so hot I'm afraid they're gonna melt!" Tom answered. "We gotta give everything a chance to cool down!"

"Ah. Good call. Pony, can you reroute power to the coolant pump?"

The droid beeped in the affirmative.

A moment later, Star and Marco reappeared in the cockpit, the latter cupping his aching nose with his hand. "It worked!" Star cried happily. "And we didn't blow up!"

"B't I did sma'd by dode," Marco moaned.

They each took a seat behind the pilots.

"So, I guess we probably very quickly should talk about this now," Janna said, "Where exactly are going? I need coordinates for a hyperspace jump so we can get away from this planet."

Star thoughtfully placed her hand on her chin. "Hmm..."

Before she had a chance to say anything, an alarm started blaring. Tom looked at his screen, and his trio of eyes went wide. "Uh-!" But anything else he might have said was cut off as a venator-class attack cruiser materialized out of hyperspace directly in front of the Raventalon, only a few hundred meters off the bow.

All four teenagers screamed.

"AHHHHHH!"

As every one of the cruiser's canons began to fire on the decelerating freighter, Janna slammed the throttle back up to full power and pointed the Raventalon under the lower hull of the cruiser. She juked the ship left and right to avoid canon bolts, each coming closer than the last as they drew closer to the cruiser.

"Uh, Janna? Shouldn't you be going, you know, away from the people trying to kill us?" Star asked.

"Takes a lot less time to get underneath that cruiser where there are no canons than to try to get out of range," Janna explained as she rolled the Raventalon in another 360 to avoid several shots in succession. "Once we're under the cruiser where they can't hit us, they'll probably launch fighters, so Pony, you better get the hyperdrive ready to tear out of here as soon as we're clear!"

The droid beeped questioningly, asking where their destination should be.

"It doesn't matter! Anywhere that isn't here! Just pick a place!"

A second later, they made it to the safety of space beneath the attack cruiser's hull. Janna skirted the ship close along the bottom, still at full speed trying to get out of Coruscant's gravity well as quickly as possible. It was then that Marco noticed the plethora of waning lights flashing, an alert beeping in time with the light, and the sound of the sublight engines behind them, which sounded far more high-pitched than usual, whining in protest.

"Uh, what's up with the flashing lights and why do the engines sound weird?"

"The engines and reactor are overheated," Tom explained.

"But we don't exactly have time to spare to stop and let them cool," Janna added.

Tom's radar display picked up something that caught his attention. "Two fighters from the cruiser," he said, "coming up behind us, fast! And we, meanwhile, seem to be slowing down."

"I noticed that. I think everything is so overheated that it's bogging down," Janna said. Something on a screen alerted her. "We're clear of Coruscant's gravity! Pony, how's the hyperdrive coming?" The astromech bleeped and blooped a few times. "Well, hurry it up!"

"Janna..." Tom sounded scared as a sensor alert went off. "Those fighters are arming missiles."

"Pony! Faster!"

Marco looked at Star beside him. Gone was any semblance of her usual cheerfulness and optimism. She looked as frightened as he felt. We aren't gonna make it, Marco thought. I have to tell her right now. "Star?" he squeaked. She turned her focus from the forward viewscreen and her wide blue eyes met his gaze. "I, uh, have to tell you something..."

PY-HD chittered rapidly.

"She's done!" Janna cried.

"Switching over to primary hyperdrive control!" Tom cried, his hands rapidly flipping switches.

"I wish I had told you sooner..."

"Ready to go to lightspeed!"

Tom's radar screen began to flash red. "THEY FIRED MISSILES AT US!" Tom yelled in panic.

Janna's hand snapped to the hyperdrive control lever and Tom found his a split second later.

"Star, I-"

"THREETWOONE GO, BABY, GO!" Janna yelled, drowning out anything Marco might have said. She and Tom slammed their hyperdrive control levers forward.

Outside the forward viewscreen, the light from hundreds of distant stars stretched into long streaks as the YV-560 jumped into hyperspace...

...just as one of the missiles from the enemy fighters struck the stern of the Raventalon just above the starboard-most sublight thruster housing, exploding as the ship disappeared from Coruscant's space.

I can't believe it took TEN chapters to get them off Coruscant. Yeah, this story is going to be really, really long.

What perils will befell our heroes now? Tune in next time to find out!

As always, don't forget to review! I'd really, really appreciate it.