Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
So, I think you all will like what will happen in this chapter. What is that, you may ask? Well, you'll have to read and find out! Haha!
Let's get to it.
Dalej0523: Well, the Terrans pretty much already know the truth. The problem is they don't have enough evidence to convince the Empire of the truth. And even then, there would be plenty who would still support the Emperor.
Guest: Yes there will be more defections. As for your questions: 1) Yes, eventually. 2) The First Order will design their Resurgent class based on photographs and stolen technical data. 3) Still not entirely sure about the design of the Dreadnought class.
Amelia831: I don't have a particular reason for calling it the Zulu Force. I just thought it sounded interesting. The official name is the 1st Special Operations Squadron Detachment Zulu. And the relationship between the Zulu Force and surviving Mandalorians may not be as tense as you imagine.
Guest: Thanks for pointing out my mistakes. As for the spy, I may include them at some point. You'll just have to wait and find out.
Chapter 30- Hunt for a Holocron
(January 2, 2015)
Kelly is quiet as the shuttle drops out of hyperspace, the planet of Batonn coming into view up ahead. Their mission is finally underway.
A few weeks ago, a Terran spy had learned that the Empire was in position of a holocron that was believed to have been created by the famous Jedi turned Sith turned Jedi known as Revan. The holocron was stored at an Imperial depository on the planet Batonn. The Terran Alliance had organized a team to retrieve the holocron. The team was comprised of Captain Ronen of the ASAT team, Kelly, and eight men from a Sayeret Matkal unit. Kelly had also insisted that Luke accompany them, and her father had agreed, as had the Rebel leadership.
"Kelly. Go prep the squad," Ronen says from his position in the co pilot's seat.
"Yes, Captain," she says before she walks out of the cockpit.
She walks back into the passenger area, and sees the six Israeli commandos and Luke all sitting in their seats, waiting.
"We've arrived at Batonn. Let's get ready to go," Kelly says.
The Israelis nod simply and begin gathering up their gear, checking their assault rifles and making sure everything is ready to go. Luke stands up and checks to make sure his blaster and lightsaber are secured to his belt.
"Are you ready for this?" Kelly asks Luke.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Luke says.
"Good," Kelly says with a smile.
The shuttle descends smoothly into Batonn's atmosphere, keeping out of sight of Imperial installations before finally touching down on the other side of a small mountain from the target facility.
As the shuttle powers down, Ronen comes in from the cockpit, his lightsaber swinging at his hip. "Alright, men. It's gonna be an hour hike to the facility. Intelligence shows the facility is relatively lightly defended. This should be a rather easy operation. However, we still don't know exactly what the defenses will be like inside. Stay on your guard, and be prepared for anything. Understood?"
Everyone nods at Ronen. Ronen nods in return and says, "Alright. Let's move out."
The back boarding ramp lowers a moment later, and Ronen leads the team out of the shuttle. As soon as everyone is out, they begin the long hike towards the facility.
For an hour, the team hikes around the side of the mountain in total silence, not taking any chances of the Imperials detecting them.
Finally, after an hour, they see the facility come into view up ahead. Ronen motions for them to stop and takes a moment to surveil the facility.
"Alright. Let's move in," Ronen says as he begins moving towards the facility. The rest of the team follows close behind.
Ronen leads the team up to the outer wall of the facility. To their amazement, there are no stormtroopers patrolling outside to discover them.
Ronen quickly finds a door leading into the facility. Drawing his lightsaber from his belt, he ignites one of its blades and stabs it through the lock, melting through it. He removes his lightsaber and deactivates it, returning it to his belt before forcing the door open.
The team moves slowly into the facility, and quickly sees that they've entered through a maintenance tunnel.
Ronen turns to the team. "Alright. Let's split up. Kelly, you take Luke and Captain Raz's fireteam. Lieutenant Netanyahu, you and your fireteam with me. We'll search the facility separately. As soon as one group locates the holocron, report it in and we'll meet back here. Understood?" Everyone nods.
"Okay. Let's move," Ronen says. The two teams separate, and Kelly leads her team down one hallway as Ronen leads his team in the opposite direction.
Kelly keeps her lightsaber at the ready in her hand, but refrains from igniting it quite yet. Luke follows beside her. Three of the Israelis follow behind her, weapons at the ready and watching the front and side, while the fourth follows them while walking backwards, his assault rifle raised, keeping their six o clock clear.
As they reach a corner, Kelly looks around the corner, then doubles back as she sees a patrol of four stormtroopers approaching. She glances back and says, "Stormtroopers. Four of them."
"I've got it," Captain Raz says, stowing his assault rifle on his back and drawing his combat knife while motioning for them to back up.
The team waits quietly. Then, the stormtroopers round the corner.
Before they even have time to register that there are intruders, Captain Raz is on them. He leaps forward and drives his knife through the eye of one of the stormtroopers. He then ducks under the outstretched arm of another, driving his knife into the trooper's armpit. Moving smoothly past the trooper, he drives his knife into the throat of one of the two remaining troopers. He then whips around, grabs the remaining trooper by the head and whips the trooper around so the trooper's back is against his chest, and then slices the trooper's throat open with his knife. Raz then allows the body to fall to the ground.
Kelly and Luke stare in shock at what they just witnessed, not only at how quickly Raz dispatched all four of them, and just the sight of carnage before them. Luke privately wonders how much training Raz must have gone through to be able to kill those men without hardly even batting an eye.
Raz and another Israeli drag the bodies out of view and stash them against the wall so they're a little more out of the way. Once the bodies are out of the way, Kelly says, "Let's move on."
The team moves slowly, remaining alert now that they know they will encounter stormtrooper patrols. Kelly takes to gripping her lightsaber a bit tighter.
Elsewhere in the facility, Ronen slowly leads his team down a hallway, his lightsaber in hand. As he rounds a corner, he comes face to face with two stormtroopers. Without a moment's hesitation, and so fast his men hardly even register it, he ignites his lightsaber and beheads the two stormtroopers before deactivating his saber again.
"Come on, we gotta move," Ronen says, and he and his men hurry down the hallway towards one of the large vaults within the facility.
Reaching the vault, Ronen again ignites his lightsaber and stabs it into the vault. Slowly but surely, he moves his lightsaber in a circle, cutting a hole in the vault door.
Ronen motions for his men to follow him as he deactivates his lightsaber, and he climbs through the hole and into the vault, followed by his four men. Once all five of them are inside the vault, Ronen says, "Alright. Search the vault. Every nook and cranny."
As the men begin searching the vault for a sign of the holocron, across the facility, Kelly and her team reach another vault, having encountered and killed another stromtrooper patrol. Kelly ignites her lightsaber and like Ronen she cuts open a hole in the door of the vault.
As the team climbs through the hole and into the vault, Kelly says, "Alright. Let's move quickly. It's not gonna be long before they find us."
The team quickly gets to work. The four Israelis start turning over everything, looking for a sign of the holocron. As Kelly watches them, she wonders if there might be another way to find it. She slowly closes her eyes and stretches out with her feelings, opening herself to the Force.
Within just a few seconds, she feels something. Kelly opens her eyes and looks in the direction she felt something from, and sees a box. She walks over to the box and slowly opens it, revealing a cubical shaped holocron.
Kelly slowly reaches down and picks up the holocron, examining it for several moments before she says softly, "This is it." She then looks around at her team and says, "I found it. Let's get out of here." She then raises her wrist commlink to her mouth and says into it, "Captain Ronen, this is Kelly. I've located the holocron and have it in my possession."
"Copy that. Retreat to the rendezvous point," Ronen replies.
"Understood," Kelly says before cutting off the transmission. She looks at her team and says, "Let's move!"
They all head to the entrance to the vault, and Kelly climbs out first. As she does, she looks down the hallway, drawn by a sound, and sees at least thirty stormtroopers, led by several death troopers, rushing down the hallway towards her.
"Crap," she says as she ignites her lightsaber.
Luke quickly follows her out of the vault, as well as the four Israelis. The Israelis look down the hallway to see the approaching troopers, and curse in unison.
Kelly charges towards the troopers, lightsaber at the ready, as Luke pulls out his blaster and fires it towards the troopers while the four Israelis fire their assault rifles. A number of stormtroopers are gunned down before Kelly can even get close.
Kelly blocks several blaster bolts with her lightsaber before lunging towards the first death trooper and beheading him with her lightsaber. She then turns to attack another death trooper, but the trooper pulls out and expands an electrostaff, blocking her lightsaber with it as she strikes. Kelly attacks the death trooper, who is forced onto the defensive, as Kelly is definitely his superior.
Meanwhile, Luke and the four Israelis are engaging the troopers. Luke has drawn his lightsaber, while the Israelis have switched over to pistols as they attack the stormtroopers at close range.
Kelly slashes at the death trooper again and again, alternating between aiming his head and his hips. The trooper manages to block her strikes. As their duel continues, the trooper is slowly able to get a better handle on Kelly's fighting style, and is slowly able to match her moves. Then, without warning, a second death trooper joins the fight with his own electrostaff, forcing Kelly onto the defensive.
As Kelly continues to duel the death troopers, Luke continues fighting with the stormtroopers, blocking their blaster bolts with his lightsaber. As he kills a stormtrooper by driving his lightsaber through his chest, he turns around and sees that there are only a few stormtroopers left. Most of them are lying dead around the four Israelis, who are continuing to attack any stormtrooper within they reach, killing a number of them with their bare hands, without any weapons at all. Luke muses that it still amazes him how well trained Terran commandos are.
Luke then looks over at where Kelly is still fighting the death troopers, and is getting a little more desperate trying to defend against both of them. Then, one of the death troopers strikes at her, forcing her to block his strike, allowing for the other trooper to kick her legs out from under her. As she falls, the first trooper raises his staff, ready to strike.
Luke runs towards the duelists, lightsaber in hand. The death trooper, focused on finishing off Kelly, doesn't see him coming. As the trooper brings his staff down, Luke deflects it away using his lightsaber, then drivers his lightsaber through the trooper's chest, killing him. He then quickly draws it out and turns to the second death trooper. He blocks a strike by the trooper using his saber. As he struggles against the trooper, Captain Raz leaps out of nowhere, grabs the trooper by the head, and with one sharp movement, snaps the trooper's neck before dropping the body.
Luke looks down at Kelly, who is staring back up at him in amazement. He deactivates his saber and reaches down, offering his hand. Kelly reaches up and accepts the hand, and Luke pulls her to her feet.
"Looks like you owe me one," Luke says with a slight smile.
Kelly looks at Luke for a moment. Then, without warning, she reaches up, grabs his head, pulls him in, and kisses him.
Luke stands there in shock for a moment. He had felt that he had been developing feelings for Kelly for a little while, but had never felt to act on them. Then, as the situation really registers to Luke, he suddenly finds himself kissing her back.
The kiss only lasts for a few more moments before Kelly pulls back and looks at Luke. She smiles a bit before saying, "I'm not gonna lie, I've wanted to do that for months." Luke just smiles back at her.
"Come on, lovebirds. We gotta get out of here," Captain Raz says. Kelly and Luke look around and see that the four Israelis are watching them with amusement.
The two blush a bit, and Kelly says, "You're right. Let's move."
The team races through the halls of the facility back to the designated rendezvous point. As they round the corner, they see Ronen and his four men waiting for them.
"You're late," Ronen says with a slight grin.
"We got held up," Kelly says.
"Well, the shuttle's on the way. Let's move," Ronen says. He turns and hurries down the maintenance hall they entered the facility through, and the rest of the team follows him.
Once all of them are out of the facility, they start running back the way they came. They're not running for very long before the shuttle comes streaking over the trees and snaps to a halt just overhead. The boarding ramp lowers, and the whole team quickly hurries aboard. As soon as all of them are on the shuttle, the boarding ramp is raised and the shuttle takes off out of the atmosphere. Once out of the atmosphere, the pilot pushes the hyperdrive throttles forward, and the shuttle makes the jump to hyperspace.
As the shuttle jumps into hyperspace, Kelly sits down beside Luke. She looks at him, smiling, then takes his hand in hers. "So. Do you want to try this out? See where it takes us?" she asks.
"Yeah," Luke says with a smile.
"Good," Kelly says with a smile, and kisses him again.
And, I'll end there.
So, Luke and Kelly are finally together! I hope you guys liked how I did it.
I also hope you liked the action scenes I included in this.
Next chapter will be up within the next few days, hopefully. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!