Chapter 12
"Sir!" One of the men in the Razmass said, looking at the green screen in front of him. "The ship from earlier has returned."
The Diversity jumped out of hyperspace some distance away from Razmass.
"This time, we're not taking things lightly. Send out TIE fighters to shoot it down!" Admiral Soot ordered.
Lona made the ship speed forward towards the much larger Razmass. She was not sure yet what she would do. A hanger door of the Razmass opened and three TIE fighters flew out to meet the rebel ship. The four ships were heading towards each other at great speed. The TIE fighters began shooting and caught The Diversity a few times before Lona manoeuvred the ship past the three TIE fighters towards Razmass.
The TIEs turned expertly and began pursuing the Diversity. They began firing at the bigger rebel ship from behind. Lona gritted her teeth as she realised that her shields would not hold out for long against the bombardment from the three TIE fighters.
"We seem to be getting our butts kicked!" Dyna said suddenly appearing at Lona's side.
Lona was startled to see the Twi'Lek girl at her side.
"Dyna! What are you doing here?" Lona said as she thought she had left Dyna behind in the much safer ship, Lona's Room.
"I was serious about wanting to help." Dyna said as she hung on to the co-pilot chair from behind.
"You better strap yourself in." Lona said as they were getting hammered with fire from the TIEs.
Dyan quickly strapped herself in the co-pilot chair. "You're getting shot a lot."
"I'm not much of a pilot, I'm afraid." Lona said as she realised how much trouble they were in. She checked some of the instruments near her and realised that they could not escape into hyperspace as the ship still needed time to recover. To make matters worse their shield integrity just dropped to zero!
"Buck told me that fighter pilots weaved if they were being chased and shot form behind!" Dyna said as one of their pursuiers shot at them, causing a small explosion that shook the ship. There was now a trail of smoke coming from the Diversity.
"Weave, huh?" Lona said as she stopped flying in a straight line.
To the surprise of the TIE fighter pilots The Diversity began dodging more of their fire. They began taking battle formations to take down the ship. One of the TIEs got off another shot which caused another small explosion in The Diversity.
"We're getting killed here!" Lona said to herself.
"Look!" Dyna said pointing at an open hanger, where the TIEs had come from. "Can't we go in there?"
"What? No, we can't... we..." Lona said but the more she thought about it the more she was convinced that it was not a bad idea. She needed to get in the Razmass to save Buck and Zack, didn't she?
The Diversity dropped and headed for the hanger at full speed. Lona could not help but to be amazed at how fast the The Diversity was. 'If only I was a better pilot than I could have defended myself better against the TIEs,' she thought bitterly.
The Diversity flew into the hanger. The hanger's work men ran away from the white and purple ship that flew in. The hanger had TIE fighters that stood in lines and a few other vehicles belonging to the work men stationed there.The Diversity hovered in place as some of the armed soldiers began shooting at it with their blasters.
"This was not a good idea." Lona said.
"Hey! Stop shooting at us you jerks!" Dyna shouted from her place looking down at the Stormtroopers shooting at them.
The Diversity began speeding for the exit. The TIE fighters just entered the hanger when The Diversity was speeding out. Two of the TIEs flew to the either side to get out of the path of the bigger ship while a third one scraped the top and tumbled out of control, crashing at the back of the hanger causing a fire. The other TIE fighters that had flew to the side to dodge the bigger ship lost control and crashed into other parked TIE ships. This caused a chain reaction where all the lined up ships blew up, row by row. The Diversity exited the hanger just as it was engulfed in explosive fire.
"Sir, we've taken internal damage, originating from hangar 1. It seems that the rebel ship flew in and damaged it." A service man in the main hangar said to the Admiral.
"Get emergency services there!" Admiral Soot said. "Where is the enemy ship?"
"W-We seem to have lost track of the ship during the hangar commotion, sir!" Another service man said.
"What! Find that ship!" The Admiral said foaming at the mouth.
"Sir there's a ship at the edge of our sensors." Another man said looking at the instruments in front of them.
"Is it the enemy ship?" The Admiral inquired while walking to the man. The Admiral looked at the instruments and saw a dot beeping steadily just at the edges of their sensors.
"I'm not sure, sir." The service man said. "If it is, than that ship is faster than we thought."
"Identify it, now!" The Admiral said shouting at the air.
"Too late sir." The service man who had spotted the ship said. "The ship is now beyond our sensors."
/
Lona and Dyna were sitting in the dim control room of the ship. The only sources of light were blinking lights and buttons that were illuminated. Lona was pressing buttons while the ship made beeping noises.
"What are you doing?" Dyna asked looking at Lona who was running around the dim room.
"I'm diverting some of our power to the shields," Lona said while working. "This will badly affect other systems but I believe that we'll need shields if we're going to have a chance to escape."
"Escape? Where are we?"
"We're in one of the docking ports of Star Destroyers." Lona said, taking out her blaster gun from the holster on her hip and checking it.
Dyna looked at her and guessed that the task she was doing must be hard, considering they were in a nearly dark room.
"It's a miracle that they haven't located us." Lona said returning her weapon to its holster. "I'm going to board the ship and get Zack and Buck."
"I'll come wi..."
"No!" Lona said turning around to the Twi'Lek. "You cannot come with me!"
Dyna was frightened because it was the first time Lona had ever raised her voice at her before, she was usually sweet to her.
Lona sighed and kneeled to look at the girl in the eye. The whites of their eyes were some of the only things that were visible in the dark room. "I hate that you're involved in this, Dyna but I have no choice. I need you to guard the ship while I'm away. Defend it if you can but if you can't, use it to escape. Okay?"
"And leave you behind?" Dyna said amazed. "Never!"
"No use in staying behind for us if we're captured or... worse." Lona said. "Promise me that you will leave if you have no choice."
Dyna reluctantly nodded.
"Good, now let's see your blaster."
Dyna took out her blaster from the homemade holster resting behind her at her back. She held it in front of her face with barrel pointing up.
"Good. Remember, what you do when you see a shady character?"
"I shoot them in the head." Dyna said quietly.
"Good. Stay safe." Lona kissed her on the forehead before leaving the room.
Lona walked to the outside of the ship where he opened the port doors. There was no one working in the port The Diversity had connected to. She was able to sneak deeper into the Star Destroyer where he proceeded with her mission to save Zack and Buck.
/
Saza and Zack faced off. They were both in fighting stances with their lightsabers at the ready. Saza held hers directly in front of her face, with the blade parallel to her chest and head while her legs were together. Zack held his own lightsaber to the side, also parallel to the ground with his legs spaced apart.
"Interesting lightsaber." Saza said, noting the green halo near the base of the energy blade of the same colour.
Zack gave a cocky smile, "I try." He stood in place as Saza began moving forward but then she stopped. Zack narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her. "Where is Ru' Bik?"
"Somewhere on the ship." Saza smiled evilly at Zack's confused expression. "Don't worry, he is well guarded. No one can get to him, not even a Jedi. That is what you are, right?"
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"I guess we'll find out!" Saza said before charging at Zack.
Their blades met then parted only to be brought together again. Neither of them could gain an advantage because as soon as one of them attacked the other would parry, something Saza did most, or block, something that Zack did most of the time, and try to counter forcing the other to defend and retreat before attacking.
Zack gritted his teeth as he tried to create an opening. There were a few times when the red blade came close to finishing him but he was able to block in time. When he had glimpses of his opponents face, he saw that she had a neutral look on her face that would occasionally flicker to a grimace everytime she had to parry a quick slash. She wielded her weapon with one hand- its red blade tried to weave past Zack's defences. This was Zack's first lightsaber to lightsaber fight since all those years ago as a youngling in friendly sparring matches with fellow aspiring Jedi knights. The difference now was that Zack was a young adult and this match was anything but friendly, it was for his life.
/
Buck looked at the barrel of the blaster that was being held to his face by his best friend. A purple bruise was beginning to make itself apparent on the side of his face where he was kicked by Canoe. Canoe took off his helmet, letting his ginger hair free and allowing his freckled face to see the artificial lighting of the ship. He wanted to look at Buck in the eyes.
"Why?" Canoe began. "Why would you betray the Empire?"
"You wouldn't understand." Buck said.
"Try me!"
"You wouldn't understand!"
"TRY ME!"
"I... I owe the man my life," Buck said. "Ru' Bik is a good man"
"You owe him enough to jeopardise your career?"
"Yes."
Canoe took the blaster away. "You're a fool." Canoe said tossing the blaster to Buck.
Buck took it and looked at Canoe with a confused look. "Why would you give me a blaster."
"Well, I trust you're not going to shoot me, are you?" Canoe said walking to the other blaster. "Unless those rebels have brainwashed you."
Buck smiled. Although they were on opposing sides of the war but their bond of comradeship was still strong. "Don't worry, they haven't." Buck fetched his helmet from the floor and held it under his arm. "How... How did you guys know we were coming?"
"We cracked down on one of the rebel cells on Cirasso and the guy spilled the beans on your little suicide operation." Canoe said holstering his weapon. "If I knew that you were coming... well, I guess I'd still be here. My commanding officer is a psychopathic sadist."
"I need to save the guy I came with." Buck said, ignoring Canoe's last sentence.
"The lightsaber guy? He's as good as dead, with the ambush she's planned for him." Canoe said. "I think you should try and escape, buddy."
"I can't. Remember Rule 8 of being a Stormtrooper?"
"'Never leave a man behind.'" Canoe said. "But I don't know how you'll get to him..."
"There's another entrance on the other side of the holding area." Buck said putting on his helmet. "If I can make it there, then I can save him. If I'm going to succeed, I'm going to have to ask you ot do something you're not going to like. I need your help, my friend."
Canoe sighed. "You've been making me do things I don't like lately, buddy."
"Again, I'm sorry."
"I must be as big as a fool as you," Canoe sighed to himself. "What do you need?"
"I need to know the fastest way to the other entrance and the codes to open the door." Buck said.
"Alright..." Canoe quickly explained the fastest way and also gave Buck the codes to open the doors. "Oh, and Buck, if by some miracle you do survive, I suggest you don't go to that little ship you used to infiltrate us with because by now it is heavily guarded."
Buck nodded and patted Canoe on the shoulder before running off. Canoe looked at his doomed friend and shook his head sadly.
/
Buck ran across the corridors to his new destination before it was too late. On the way he bumped into someone and fell back. His eyes went wide as the person he had bumped into aimed their gun at him and fired. He had to roll to the side as the energy blast scorched the ground next to him.
Buck took off his helmet and held his hands out, "Stop Lona! It's me."
They both got up to their feet.
"Where's Zack?" She asked.
"He's about to be ambushed." Buck said jogging past her and forcing her to join him. "I was on my way to help him when I bumped into you. What are you doing here?"
"I came when I realised this was a trap." Lona said. "They knew we were coming!"
"Yeah, I figured that out." Buck said as they cautiously turned a corner. "We need to get out of here ASAP but I don't know how. The ship we came with is being guarded."
"Then it's a good thing that I brought The Diversity along."
/
Zack and Saza parted after another round of fighting. Zack had gained confidence during the fight. He was able to hold his own against his opponent and was confident that there was a chance he could actually win. Saza smiled at him which caused his own smile to disappear into a frown of confusion.
Saza pointed her blade at her opponent. "You are fast and energetic, boy, but your skills leave a lot to be desired."
"Boy?" Zack said wrinkling his nose in disgust. "If my skills are so low than why I you struggling?"
"What? Oh," Saza said placing her hand over her mouth while she giggled, "you actually think I've begun to try to kill you? What a silly and interesting boy you are. I don't want to kill you so how about this: youc an join me or have your head cut off."
"You're bluffing." Zack said smiling cockily.
"Okay, now you're going to see how I really fight when I'm taking this seriously." Saza held her lightsaber out in front of her, turning the blade sideways. A part of the arch that began at the blades hilt and curved to its base, fell down, making the lightsaber hilt circular with the emitter running at the center of the circle.
Saza took a quick fighting stance before charging at Zack. Zack was determined not to be intimidated so he also charged at her. Zack spun in the air and brought his blade down for her head. She stopped and back stepped while parrying the slash. She shifted forward thrusting the point at Zack's head. Zack jerked his head to the side in time to dodge the point. He swatted the red blade with his own green one. He began a furious three strike attack which forced Saza back. She parried the three strikes which ended in her lightsaber blade facing away from Zack. To Zack's shock, from the butt of the hilt and new red blade emerged, with its point speeding towards his face. He leapt back in time to dodge it but soon had to defend against the other blade which Saza swung around at him.
Saza had now adopted a fighting style to suite the double bladed lightsaber she wielded. Zack was desperately retreating in an attempt to escape the unexpected attack. He desperately back stepped, losing his form in the process. The second blade suddenly withdrew and Saza pressed forward again returning to the one handed grip of the circular hilt. However, her skill was better than the last time she had fought him this way and he found himself struggling to keep up with the speed of her strikes and the angles of her attack. He swatted the blade away and saw an opening . he swung up and brought the blade down, hoping to slice her head in half. The secondary blade came out just in time to collide its point with his blade, reflecting his attack back. Saza pressed on with her double ended lightsaber and then withdrew the other blade as she continued pressing her advantage.
She kept changing from two blades to one blade and Zack was still being pressed back. She got past his defences while wielding the single blade and gave him a grazing cut to the leg. Zack fell to a knee while screaming in pain. While on his knees he pointed his blade out in defence but Saza did not look worried. She had a psychotic smile on her face.
"Get up!" She said to him.
Zack suddenly lunged forward and attacked with surprising fury. Saza was so taken aback that she had to retreat while defending his blows. Zack kept pressing forward. He knew that he could not give her any room to breathe. However, Saza soon recovered from the attack and was beginning to get back into her own rhythm. She activated the other blade and attacked, driving ZacK back. Once again she switched between two blades and one, keeping her opponent off balance while advancing. This time she was able to give a glancing slash to his arm and kicked him away. Zack flew to the ground before sliding back.
Zack shuffled back on his butt while Saza advanced with a smile on her face. He came to realise that he could not defeat her. Her skills were far advanced compared to his. He knew that if this continued, he would die and that knowledge made him scared.
"Fear," Saza said as she approached and activating the other blade, "it's not a good quality in a Jedi... but I guess you're not a Jedi."
A door behind Zack opened to reveal Lona and Buck. Saza looked up at them in surprise. Lona's eyes went wide when she saw Zack on the floor and shot at the woman she deemed responsible. Saza deflected the energy bolts from Lona's blaster.
"Buck, give me your gun!" Lona said.
"What?" Buck said.
"Give me your gun and get Zack!" Lona said ordered. Buck gave her his blaster and Lona used them both to shoot at Saza while Buck crouched to Zack who was lying on the floor. "Get away from him, you witch!" Lona shouted as she unloaded on her with both blasters.
Buck grabbed Zack from behind and pulled him towards the exit while Saza was pinned in place by the fire that came her way. The blades on Saza's lightsaber began slowly rotating around the hilt. Soon they picked up speed until they became like a circular shield. With this new defence, Saza was able to advance on the rebels, even with Lona's fire power.
Buck pulled Zack past the door's frame. He dropped him in the hallway and closed the door while Saza advanced. The doors slid shut in Saza's face. Lona shot the pad that controlled the doors opening and closing for good measure.
Saza deactivated the blades and touched the closed with her fingers. "Interesting boy," she whispered to herself.
/
The three rebels ran across the hallways of the ship. Lona lead the way followed by Buck and Zack bringing up the rear. She led them to a T-section of the hallways and looked left and right. She bit her bottom lip in frustration.
"Stupid big ship; I think I'm lost." Lona said before looking back and seeing Zack half walk and half limp. "Zack, are you okay?"
Buck looked back at Zack who had fallen behind. "I'm okay." Zack said as he caught up.
"In which port is the ship?" Buck asked Lona.
"Port Z2" Lona said looking at Buck. She had the urge to ask him to take off his helmet so that she'd be more assured that it was an ally under there but she didn't.
"We'r in hallway -W, so we'll have to take a right... wait a second." Buck pressed a button and spoke into his helmet. "Red? Red, come in."
Canoe answered. "What do you want?"
"We're in hallway -W and we're looking for the fastest way to get to port Z2."
"Dammit, Buck. Why are you still involving me?" Canoe whispered while running behind other troopers. "There are a few Troopers who have formed blockades in some hallways, this is the route to take to avoid them..." Canoe gave them the path that would allow them to avoid most of the Stormtroopers.
Some of the doors began closing behind and in front of them, forcing them to change their course.
"They're trying to trap us in." Buck said as he took the rear.
"Really? We hadn't noticed." Zack said as he ran, trying to ignore the pain form the injuries he had sustained. All this movement only served to worsen his injured leg.
"Look!" Lona said pointing in front of her. A door was descending from the ceiling to close the other part of the hallway off.
"We need to get through to that door! It's the only pathway to our ship where there are no blockades!" Buck said.
They all sprinted ahead. Lona got to the closing door ahead of the boys, while Buck followed behind and Zack fell to the rear. Buck looked at the descending door and knew that he was not going to make it. At this rate, only Lona would be the only one to just make it.
Lona stopped at the door and tried to hold it up instead of fitting in the space under. Her strength was not near enough to even slow the door down and it inevitable closed. She slammed her fists at the door in frustration and turned around to the guys as they joined her.
"You could have gone through." Buck said.'
Lona shook her head. "No I couldn't." She leaned against the wall with all the hope drained from her.
Zack activated his lightsaber and cut a triangle on the wall beside him, exposing the wiring. "Maybe we can make the door open." Zack said leaning closer to the newly made hole.
Buck joined him and analysed the wires. "Maybe if we cross the green and blue wires..."
"Nah, crossing the purple one would be better." Zack said.
"Yeah, unless it trips some kind of alarm." Buck said fiddling with the wires. "We need something to cut them." Zack brought his lightsaber closer. "I was thinking of something smaller."
"Of course. I'm not an idiot!" Zack turned his lightsaber to the halo like circle that was at its base. He used the edge of the green halo to cut the wires before he and Buck proceeded to cross them in hopes of opening the door.
Lona rolled her eyes as the boys argued about which wires to cross and who was doing the crossing incorrectly. The door suddenly shifted and her body stiffened in surprise. "Wait," she said, "do that again; I think the door just moved."
"That doesn't make sense. The wires we crossed are still touching." Buck said.
"I think they brushed against this one." Zack said adding another wire to the ones that were touching.
The door began to lurch upwards. Lona turned around and smiled at them. The exposed wall began to throw yellow sparks as the wires began burning. Zack was focused on the burning wires until he felt a dark presence. His head whipped to the side and he saw Lona's happy expression quickly become replaced by one of shock. He eyes went wide and her smile disappeared as red focused energy erupted from her chest. The red blade stayed impaled through her chest for a moment before withdrawing and, as if given permission, her body fell to the ground revealing a smiling Saza behind where Lona had been standing.
"LOONNNAAAAA!" Zack cried as he ran to her. Saza stood ready but Zack thrust his hand out and she was pushed away by an invisible wave. Zack kneeled beside Lona and cradled her head while Buck got protectively placed himself between them and Saza. He shot at Saza and grazed her in the shoulder before she began blocking his shots. She stood in place as she deflected his shots. Another door began to descend between the group and the Inquisitor and Saza was forced to watch as she once again lost her prey behind the metal door.
Buck turned around to see Zack cradling Lona's head. "Lona, you... you're going to be okay."
"Zack, we need to go." Buck said softly. When he ignored him, he raised his voice. "Zack!"
Zack looked up at him and got back into action. He lifted Lona's body into his arms and they began running to the ship. On the way, Buck and Zack ran into two Stormtroopers but by surprising them, Buck was able to take them out without hesitation. Buck ran ahead, making sure that their path was clear of any obstacles. He didn't want to look back, he did not want to see... Buck shook the thoughts out of his head as he focused on the mission at hand: escaping.
/
They finally got to the port and opened the door to reveal Dyna pointing a gun at them. Buck quickly took off his helmet. "Woah, it's me!" He said. Dyna sighed in relief and dropped her aim before Zack ran past her to the medical room.
"What's wrong with..." Dyna began but was interrupted when Buck grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the ship hangar. "Not now! We need to get out of here!"
The ship roared to life and disengaged from the Star Destroyer. It began speeding towards the distance before five TIE fighters pursued. The TIEs quickly caught up and shot at The Diversity. The shields were holding up but Buck knew it would not be the case for long.
"What happened to our shields?" Buck shouted.
"We had a tough time getting here." Dyna said as the TIE fighters shot at them.
"I need you to keep them off our backs." Buck said.
"How?"
"Use the guns." Buck said pointing to the controls of the guns. Dyna ran to man the controls for the canons mounted on the Diversity. She did a dismal job as most of her shots completely missed the TIE fighters that had taken a fighting formation behind The Diversity.
Meanwhile, Zack carried Lona to the medical room and gently placed her on the bed. He pressed the button that summoned the medical droid.
"Hello sir, how can..."
"Check on her!" Zack said pushing the robot to the bed.
The robot scanned her body while the ship shook due to the shots taken from the pursuing TIE fighters. "I'm sorry sir, she's... dead."
"No. NOOOOO!" Zack activated his lightaber and sliced the droid across its chest.
Back at the control room, Buck was trying to avoid the TIEs, a task made impossible by their battle formation. Dyna was getting the hang of the weapons and shot at one of the TIEs multiple times before it exploded! "I got one!" She excitedly said.
"I would be happier if you got them all!" Buck said as the shields quickly dropped to zero. "I could use your help, Zack," he whispered to himself.
The Diversity came to a sudden halt, which jerked all the passengers. "What happened?" Dyna asked.
Buck noted the two TIE fighters hovering beside them. "We're caught in the TIE fighters tractor beams." He said leaning back into his chair. "It's over."
Dyna looked at him with fear, she had never seen him without hope. Another ship flew in from the distance. Buck did not bother looking at it through the instruments as he thought it was most likely another TIE but if he had, he would have seen that it was not. The ship shot down one of the TIE's holding The Diversity in a tractor beam. The Diversity could pull free from the weaker tractor beam of the one TIE fighter.
Buck looked at the ship that had just saved them. It was grey and half the size of The Diversity and much older. It engaged one of the TIEs as the rest chased after The Diversity. The communication light went on and Buck answered.
The face of a green Twi'Lek appeared in the circular screen. "Good Boy Express to The Diversity, come in."
"This is The Diversity, thank you for the save... Uhm..."
"Kisto! Where's Zack?" Kisto asked.
"He's... engaged." Buck said before another shot hit them.
"I suggest you get out of here. I've just sent you coordinates to a safe place to hyperspace to." Kisto said.
"Thank you, see you there!" Buck entered the coordinates and the ship entered hyperspace and went away from the TIEs.
Kisto weaved through the TIEs who were now beginning to focus exclusively on his ship, The Good Boy Express. Kisto noted that they were manoeuvring into a formation that would cut his escape off. The Twi 'Lek rebel waited until they almost had the formation completed before he hyperspaced away, leaving them in his dust and in frustration.
