Atton and Mission attempted to break the Sith medical-lab but to no avail. They sat a half hour a piece, and they couldn't even dent the security system.
"This system won't budge," Atton complained. "It's security is far more advanced than anything the Republics ever handled!"
"Well keep working," Jolee yelled. And so they did. Each taking turns, until even Mira tried her hand, displaying her security skills. But they failed as well.
Jolee even began to try his hand at the controls, but his attempt was much, much different. His eyes were shut gently, and his hands hovered over the system. He was deep in thought, no doubt thinking. And it only took half a minute before his hands zapped to the controls and tapped in a new pass code.
Access granted, the screen read after processing the pass code.
All in less than a minute and it all seemed so casual.
"Well," Atton said as Jolee began to scroll along the data, his face full of interest and determination. "Care to tell us why you didn't try that about two hours ago old man!"
"Because," Jolee protested in clear anger. "I wasn't sure if I had the ability to do what I just did. Something you'll never understand."
"Yeah, well," Atton replied. "Wasn't doubt your abilities something you were taught against when you actually had hair?"
But Jolee didn't respond. Atton had turned the other way but noticed Mira staring at the screen, a bit surprised, perhaps scared. And when he turned, he knew why.
"The system's been rigged," Jolee murmured. "It was locked down, and for any reason if it were to ever to be brought up, the active system would trigger a…."
The room suddenly turned a different color. The illumination strips now had a shade of red to them, all the doors began to ever-so-slowly close and a mechanical voice came over the intercom.
"System melt-down. Toxic gas will be released in 5 minutes. "
"Revan," Carth shouted over the long-range communicator, his holographic face looking serious.
"Carth," Revan replied calmly. "I can only imagine this is horrible news."
"I don't think you needed the Force to figure that one out. We've made contact with the Mon Calamari system. They apparently need some time to trust us, but an unidentified ship has just come in, and it's already tearing up their main planet. As a helpful push towards them trusting us, I've arranged for us to send an old war-ship there from Alderaan, and we need you and Drendan to head in to lead on. If your coordinates are the same as I think they are, you should be arriving more or less at the same time."
"We've been free for an hour and we're already called to the rescue," Drendan smugly muttered.
"Oh," Revan childishly chimed in. "Let me guess, let me guess! You think it's sith don't you!"
"How bright you are Revan. Here, I'm sending in the coordinates via com-unit. We're sending off our war-ship right now. If you want, you can take a quick stop at our hangar bay to grab a few fighters while we have a few mechanics fill up the Ebon Hawk and prepare her for battle as well."
"Sounds like a deal Carth," Drendan replied and Revan nodded. Drendan turned and strode back into the cockpit of the Hawk, but Revan stayed. He looked over his shoulder quickly before hunching down and speaking in a lowered voice.
"Any word of Bastilla?"
Carth shook his head grimly and stared into Revan's suddenly depressed eyes.
"I'm sorry. We did everything we could but we can't seem to trace her at all."
Revan frowned and looked down for a moment.
"I understand. Keep trying though please."
"You know I will Revan. See you on the battle field." The transmission cut off and the hologram of Carth vanished into the dark air surrounding Revan.
"Malak," Captain Guzz-Shull, the captain of a large Malak-controlled flag-ship, said. "The attack has begun; the ship has just pulled out of hyperspace and has begun firing off critical proton bombs and turbo-laser blasts. The planet has shown little resistance, though we do expect a flag-ship to approach from the planet's surface."
"Good," Malak's evil satisfied voice whispered. "The war has begun, and now the first phase of my plan is complete… My apprentice."
Malak's voice crept through out the halls, and a moment later, the man dressed in all dark black robes stepped in through the Bridge doors.
"Yes," his voice spoke blankly. "Master."
"You understood your mission from what the scientists reported. Your ship is on auto-pilot to Taris. Bring us back what is left."
"Yes, master."
The Ebon Hawk pulled out of hyperspace and the two were immediately surprised by the number of star ships zapping amongst the space above Mon Calamari. Two flag ships hovered over the planet to the right while a larger ship was to the left with two smaller frigates hovered near it, firing long green turbo lasers at the other two ships.
"Revan!" Carth shouted excitedly. "About time you're here, hurry, get to the hangar, we're getting dozens of casualties every moment we waste!"
Revan didn't even have a chance to ask questions or to reply. The transmission shut off as quickly as it had opened. Revan took to the controls once more and moved the ship towards the chaos.
Drendan strapped into the co-pilot seat and attached the crash webbing to his self. It took a few long moments before the ship was close to the battle, but once they were nearing the perimeter of it all, the Ebon Hawk was an immediate target for the Sith. The ship had already been identified as an ally for the Republic fighters, but it still remained anonymous to the sith, though it didn't quite matter.
The Ebon hawk began to tilt to the left abruptly as a series of red blaster bolts flew past the underside of the ship. Revan pulled up on the controls hard and the Ebon Hawk began to zip upwards, spinning in circles. Drendan clenched his seats as the view screen showed him millions of stars floating peacefully, and then the occasional menacing blaster bolt.
But soon once again the Ebon Hawk darted down, but towards the battle more than directly down.
"We got three Sith on our tail Rev!" Drendan warned, but Revan had already sensed them. The ship began to spin almost uncontrollably to the right and a series of red blaster shots flew right past the view screen. Revan began to twist and turn, spin and zip, but the ships wouldn't get off of him.
"Fine buddy, you asked for this!" Revan's hands jolted towards him and the ship moved upwards and back. Soon Revan was right behind the three pilots. Revan laughed, satisfied with his maneuver. A grin crossed his face as he pushed his thumbs down and the first ship exploded into a ball of flames. The second and third soon followed after.
Revan activated the turbo boost and they flew towards the hangar of the Republic war-ship. He loosened his grip as they neared the ship. The boost faded away and the ship landed in the hangar. Revan and Drendan rushed out to the ramp and leaped out to be met by Carth.
"Revan, Drendan, we have a tactical plan!" Carth shot, skipping the greeting.
"Nice to see you to Carth, how's it going?" Revan sarcastically said.
"Revan, will send you in with a small squad of including you, which will be Bravo, on a gun-ship. You'll land inside the enemy hangar and take out there auto-turret defense mainframe and shield generator! Drendan, you'll take command of Alpha squad and strike their frigates. After the generators are out, Drendan will send in his squad to take out the ships main critical systems. Revan, you'll grab an enemy bomber and let one of your members co-pilot with you, and the rest will board the gun-ship. Together, Revan and Drendan, we need you to lead Alpha and Bravo squad on to finish off the ship while we let our remaining heavy ships help you out and get every small fighter available out there to fight."
Revan was impressed with Carth's tactical genius as was Drendan. But there was no time to compliment the man on his work, they could do that later. Right now they had to get out there and take action, time was running out. Drendan and Revan were handed dark brown jumpsuits and black helmets. Revan jumped into the gun-ship and held onto the railing and watched over the pilots shoulder. The remaining squad members in identical jumpsuits boarded and the ship was off.
Drendan hopped into the star fighter and seven others jumped into ships too. Drendan secured his helmet and closed the cock pit. Drendan gave the signal and Alpha squad's ships rose in the air and shot into space. Drendan made sure his com-link was working then spoke out-loud.
"You know what time it is, let's do this!" He was pumped. "Let's roll, get ready! Go, move, move, move!"
The ships darted through space, moving around the empty space, but all in the same general area. Drendan moved to the right, and then quickly back into the left as red bolts flew at him from all sides. He pushed the controls and flew up, spinning to the right. He was in perfect position behind a few ships.
"I'm locked on!" Drendan exclaimed and pushed his thumb down. Green laser bolts flew quickly into the other ship and set the engines on fire, only to completely be destroyed a moment later. "Gotcha!" Drendan shouted. The other two ships spotted what had happened and quickly reacted. One darted left and one darted right, splitting up for a better chance at survival.
"Alpha 3, target that fighter, I'll go after the second one!"
"Roger that Alpha leader." A voice came over into the com-link into Drendan's ear as he spun around to the left, in hot pursuit of the fleeing pilot. The pilot wasn't too experienced as it simply moved from left to right. Drendan kept his focus, not even summoning upon the Force to get a good clear shot. Finally he got a lock on and fired off a fraction of a second before it approved it was clear on his screen. The ship exploded and Drendan zoomed back to the head of his squad.
"Second fighter is down!" Drendan shouted.
"First fighter is down!" The other pilot shouted.
"Roger that Alpha 3! Move in North East towards that Frigate!" Alpha squad changed direction and flew towards the small flag-ship.
The gun-ship was taking heavy fire from many star ships all at once and wasn't in too good of a shape.
"Captain, convert the power going to the boosters to heighten our shield defenses! Running won't keep us alive for much longer!" Revan commanded. The captain nodded and obeyed, giving them more power to their shields. Revan looked around the large ship then spoke again, this time to the two in the turrets.
"Bravo 2, target that large turret over there and blast it, Bravo 4 get the one on the opposite side!" Revan was talking about the large circular objects near the top of the enemy hangar, using a laser in the middle to fire off at the gun-ship. After a few moments they exploded into flames.
"Target down Bravo leader," Bravo 2 responded.
"Target down Bravo leader," Bravo 4 responded.
Revan grinned then commanded the power to be re-converted back to the boosters. They landed in the enemy hangar in no time. The ship set down and was soon a target for every enemy in sith hangar. Revan looked out the view port to see it was small with two entrances opposite of each other. It wasn't too big nor was it too small, and most of the pilots ran past to their own command posts and/or ships. Revan was about to order the ramp to be lowered when the captain turned from his seat with a large blaster in his hand, holding it out to Revan. Revan stared surprised for a moment.
"If you prefer it Bravo leader, it is yours." The pilot said.
Revan smiled and grabbed it. "Thank you pilot, I appreciate this." Revan took off his helmet and unzipped his jumpsuit. He stepped out to reveal his brown Jedi robes, his saber on his side, blaster in his hands.
"Ok, pilot, you stay here and try and fix some systems. Bravo 6 and 7, you guys work out the outside problems while Bravo 3, 4, and 5 will provide cover for you guys and the ship. The others, 1, 2, 8, 9, and I will go in. Open the ramps!" The ship doors flew open and everyone but the pilot flooded out.
They were met immediately by a barrage of blaster fire from pilots with pistols and troopers with rifles. Revan crouched and aimed quickly. He fired off a round and was impressed with the power of the weapon. He took out three troopers trying to advance then began to advance himself.
Bravo 2 ran towards the steps leading to a small balcony-like area without a railing. Two came at him from his left, but quickly fell after Beta 1 fired off at the two. The Sith quickly began to drop and the remaining pilots fled to their star ships and sped off. Revan used the aid of the Force to leap towards the entrance to the rest of the ship. The rest of the squad followed up the stairs and the doors slid open
A squad of troopers fired off at the men and Revan executed many of them, but one shot hit a soldier to his right side.
"Ahh!" A trooper shouted in pain. "I'm hit, I'm hit!"
"Bravo 8, get that trooper some medical help!" Revan commanded, concerned for the safety of the squad. However a bolt caught him off guard. He barely had enough time to duck. He rolled forward and entered the room. He hid behind a wall that was part of a small vacant corner with only a few computers in the walls near it. Suddenly there was an explosion and the top half of the wall blew off. It seemed to go in slow motion for Revan as he saw a large chunk of metal with a sharp point fly through the air at intense speeds. It moved in a flash, yet it barely moved at all. He watched its course and his eyes widened as he saw the one thing in its path. Bravo 8!
The trooper was trying to get to the hit soldier, but he didn't have enough time to react. Revan looked on, wide-eyed as the sharp end continued to move towards Bravo 8.
"No!" Revan shouted. But it was too late. Bravo 8 looked up just in time to see the object, but not in time to move. The sharp end pierced through the soldier's chest armor. The heavy armor did nothing to stop the metal chunk from getting to the flesh of the man. Blood splattered all over the room and the sharp end dug into the chest of the man. However the metal didn't stop. It sent the man flying backwards to hit the ground with a sickening thud and the cracking sound of bones. Bravo 8 died with a sickening groan and scream of pain and a spot of blood flew onto Revan's face.
Revan stood for a moment, in shock and in grief, but it only angered him. He suppressed the anger enough to get back to his senses and think of a logical command to make.
"Everyone," Revan began. "Take cover!"
It was all he could think of. He leaned out to grab onto the fallen soldier's wrist and drag him into cover with him. The men fired off at the remaining squad members who had stood in the door way at first, then took cover in various places. Revan saw it was Bravo 1 who had been shot.
"Trooper, are you ok?" Revan asked, staring at the bloody face of the man. But he realized it was the blood of Bravo 8, not 1's.
"They got me in the shoulder, but I think I'll be ok," Bravo grimaced. Revan stared at the left shoulder of Bravo 1 and closed his eyes. Even amongst the chaos, the battle, the fury, he found peace and calm. He used the Force as an aid as he began to heal the man who was fighting under Revan's command.
"Woo hoo!" Drendan shouted as he spun his ship in circles, avoiding blaster fire from the frigate's auto-turrets. Drendan spun his ship about and swooped in low to the surface of the frigate. He fired off at a few auto-turrets on his way and dropped proton bombs near the lightly-armored areas.
"This is Alpha 6," A voice broke over to Drendan. "We got fighters!"
Drendan switched his view and looked at the large swarm of fighters nearing the squad. "Where are these guy's coming from," Drendan yelled. "Alpha 6, you and 4 finish the frigate, everyone else, let's show these guys what we're made of!"
Drendan and most of the squad spun around.
"Alpha squad, fire off everything you've got at these guys and put your shields up to maximum strength! Pull up on my mark!" Drendan was going to pull off a risky move, but he was going to pull it off. He turned a few knobs and his shields were at maximum. He began to fire off at the ships with his cannons. He hit them with walls of blazing green blaster fire and bright bluish-white proton bombs. Before he knew it there were only a few dozen left of the many. The squad continued to move forward as the other ships began to break off. They all began to surround the 6 of them. They created a full circle around them and Drendan simply smiled.
"Pull up!" Drendan screamed. They obeyed the same instant he had spoke and red blaster fire filled the empty space. The Sith fighters took each other out unintentionally and a large number of the fighters exploded into flames and steaming hot chunks of metal. A moment later an even larger explosion was heard and Alpha 6's voice came over the com-link.
"Yeeee-haw! Frigate down and out Alpha leader!"
"Roger that Alpha 6!"
"Get out of here, now!" Jolee shouted once again.
"We can't leave you here Jolee!" Mission reasoned, screaming over the alarm siren.
"We've only got 5 minutes until this thing is completely shut out, I'll get the doors open with the Force and let you guys out, but I have to stay and make sure this stuff doesn't leak out! What if the Sith come in here with uni-suits? I have to stay!"
"That doesn't even make sense," Atton exclaimed. "Listen old man, get these doors open, and walk your old bones straight out of them and let's get out of here!"
"Listen," Jolee spoke in a lower, but more firm voice. "This system-melt down thing isn't just going to make the compound get dark, OK! "It's going to release toxic gasses, the kind that turned all those creatures into what they are now! Now once this gas is released, I can't open this thing, you guys would be contaminated and get this… This virus into the other Tarisian areas and infect the other people. And with a ship out there, I don't know how smart you guys would be once contaminated; you guys need to get out of here, NOW!"
"But Jolee, you'll be contaminated!" Mission shouted. "You'll die, or worse yet be turned into one of those things!" She pointed out towards the entrance of the compound.
"This is your last warning." Jolee solemnly said.
"3 minutes until toxic gas released." The voice spoke again over the intercom.
"No Jolee, I won't go!" Mission refused to budge.
"Very well then…" Jolee rose his hands up towards the metal doors and closed his eyes. Sweat began to pour down his face as focused every last bit of energy he had into raising those doors. It was truly all he could do to move them. They slowly began to move, centimeters at first, but then more, and more.
"Two minutes until toxic gas released."
Jolee didn't lose concentration a single bit. He began to move quicker in fact. The doors raised more and more, and finally when it was half open, Jolee opened his eyes and squinted, looking towards Mission.
"No!" She still refused. "I won't lea-"But Jolee wasn't listening. Mission flew out through the small space and Zaalbar roared in anger. He began to step furiously at Jolee, but he too was thrown through the space. Jolee moved the others slower with the Force, but eventually they left too. Mission was lying flat on her back and turned to see Jolee's feet in the distance. The others neared the door and Atton rolled outside alongside with Mira.
Suddenly an explosion came from nowhere. Jolee looked from the corner of his eye to see that a gas-tank had came in contact with some sparks from the computer that had begun to smoke. The explosion hit a long wire and it hung lose. A few thick wires began to rise in front of Jolee a spark, sending red and blue sparks to fly across his face. Flames erupted and a flaming piece of metal flew through the space in the door and hit another gas tank. Before long a second explosion occurred and flames were everywhere.
Jolee stepped forward, but one of the thick wires whipped out at his legs and fell flat on his stomach. The long metal door flew straight down and Mission looked straight up at the metal door coming for her neck. It dropped at incredible speeds to Mission who simply stared up.
But at the last second, Jolee stopped it and even rose it some more. Mission reached out with one hand towards her long-time friend, the one who had saved her countless times during battle, the one who had comforted her about the destruction Taris. But most importantly, he had been her friend.
"Come on Mission, let's go!" Atton warned loudly and grabbed one of Mission's legs.
"One minute until toxic gas is released."
"We have to go!" Atton shouted. He pulled Mission away from the door. Mission met Jolee's eyes and tears began to stream down her cheek as she saw her old-time friend for the last time. When Mission was a good enough distance away from the door, the metal slammed onto the floor once again.