Chapter 78
It took quite a while to get herself recollected, after the ship had been rocked by this huge explosion but even if it was at a slow pace, Padme was able to pick herself up from the ground by holding onto one of the walls right next to her for some support. Briefly touching her forehead and seeing the blood that was transferred onto her right hand, she now knew for sure what she already kind of had expected: She had been injured during her fall onto the hard ground of the ships interior but that wasn't that much important right now.
"Hello can you hear me your majesty?" The former Queen and Senator said as she tried to determine how bad Queen Mairayn had been injured because of the shockwave they had been hit by a couple of minutes ago. As she waited for a reaction from the Queen of Naboo, she used the time to answer another important question at this point: Did she still have a pulse? Slowly but surely, she let herself down onto her knees, as she was aware of the fact that she was far away from being a hundred percent herself and didn't want to risk so much because of that. Yes, she has one but it's pretty weak I'm afraid and that means that I somehow have to keep her alive as best as I can until some help arrives here.
After applying some first aid, to keep Queen Mairayn's pulse dropping into the danger zone she decided to check onto the rest of the personnel that was on board of the little transport ship. The Pilot and Co-Pilot were doing okay, aside from an enormous headache because of their head wounds, as the Pilot tried to get up from his seat Padme had to somehow avoid the fact that he hurt himself some more:
"It's better if you stay seated for now, as you have quite a head wound and I know that it can't be long until help arrives to rescue us." Meanwhile the Flagship of the New Republic Military was still on his way to the current position of the damaged transport ship and as it was traveling through hyperspace Leia had retreated to her quarters for the moment and was recording a message for Han:
"The rescue mission got a lot more complicated, when those Space Pirates decided to blow up their flagship right at the moment where the ship with the Queen of Naboo and my mother on board had almost reached our ship again. Now, we are on the way to rescue our own people and of course I hope I'm wrong but my gut tells me that there's still one other bad surprise waiting for us."
At the same time on the other end of the system, Grand Admiral Thrawn was reading a report regarding the current activities of the New Republic Military and with a big grin on his face the Chiss thought: Maybe the leaders of the New Republic don't want to admit it to themselves yet, but they will lose this war one way or another as they are no match to my military force and by doing that I'm building up another Galactic Empire that's way better than the last one.
"What is the latest on the New Republic Military transport ship?" He then asked one of the crewmen that worked at one of the stations inside the large control room of his personal flagship the Chimaera.
"As expected, your plan worked to perfection Admiral the New Republic transport ship is located not far away from the planet Florrum. "The instant answer from one of his loyal crewmembers came and of course Thrawn wasn't going to let this opportunity pass him by: Destroying one of the New Republic ships before any help would be able to get them out of this mess.
"Captain Palleon, do we have one ship ready to set course for Florrum and take care of our little problem there?" Grand Admiral Thrawn asked his right-hand man that stood right next to the command chair in the center of the ship's control room and he was quite sure that Captain Palleon wouldn't let him down.
"I get one ship on the way to Florrum right away Sir." Captain Palleon said before he left Thrawn's side to get it done.
Fondor, Imperial Weapons Research Facility
It had been quite a difficult trip to get here, but the Millennium Falcon had reached the Orbit of the Planet that had been deserted for a long time after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Recently discreet reconnaissance of the Planet's Surface by the New Republic Intelligence had proven that Grand Admiral Thrawn had reactivated the former Imperial Weapons Research Facility and that they were indeed working on some big project at the moment.
"So, this is it Chewie, I know that we always have done some high risks missions together in the past but never did the outcome of it mattered so much for several star systems that much. Because the way how this mission ends could determine if the New Republic still has a chance of survival." With his usual growls his Wookie Co-Pilot answered the little speech of his good friend and Han just replied before they started to prepare everything for the landing on the Planet's surface:
"Of course, I know that we are going to pull this one off no matter how bad the odds might look because we never failed in the past."
AN: Sorry for not updating the story for such a long time, but some real-life stress kept me from concentrating on writing but I hope that I can update it more regularly in the future. Thanks to- Duyade for adding this story to her/his favorite stories list, Thanks to- Arian 23 for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription, Thanks to- Jawo wars 117 for adding this story to her/his favorite stories list. Please read and review
